E Ink, the company that makes epaper screens for all the various brands of ebook readers, just posted its highest net profit for the first quarter in nine years.
According to an article published by Taipei Times, E Ink’s net profit was up to NT$787 million (US$26.23 million) for the first quarter of 2020, up from NT$438 million over the same period last year.
E Ink expects growth to continue through the second quarter, as demand for electronic shelf labels and color E Ink continues to rise.
In fact demand for E Ink’s new Print-Color technology, aka E Ink Kaleido, has far surpassed expectations, according to the report.
With limited production capacity, there’s a backlog of orders until August or September.
A couple of Chinese companies have started to release ereaders with color E Ink screens, and Hisense’s new color E Ink phone is now available to purchase.
Pocketbook is expected to release a color ereader soon too, and so is Onyx with the Poke2 Color.
It makes you wonder if larger companies like Amazon and Kobo will release color ereaders this year too. Considering the fact that it took Amazon 3 years to finally release an ebook reader with adjustable frontlight color, it’s not very likely they’ll be an early adopter of color E Ink, but maybe Kobo could surprise us.
via: Taipei Times
I am not sure if a color Kindle would benefit my reading habits much (except for colored covers).
However a color eink phone could have interest. I suppose their battery-life would be much better than LCD?
I am wondering if you know if E Ink are making larger color screens I have a 7.8 inch reader and I think 8 inches to be the perfect eReader size (with slim bezels).
So far the color ereaders all have 6-inch screens (smaller for the Hisense phone), but I imagine if they prove to be successful they’ll make them in various sizes. To me the smaller screens don’t really make sense for color content.
I just need my nooks to hang on for a little while longer and then I get the color 10/13inch e-reader I’ve always wanted to replace my entire physical library with.
I don’t understand what has happened: Kaleido seems no to be better than Triton (poor color gamut and still too much slow), but it’s being sold much more.
It appears a bit more colorful than Triton did to me, and I think having a frontlight helps a lot. Triton predated frontlights.
I am not so sure Amazon will skip this year. Color E ink looks somewhat impressive. My guess is they will at least put out a 6″ Kindle Rainbow…or some other name.
Kobo might be first with an 8″ or larger device.
If either put out a large 8″ to 10″ inch device out with page…I may be in the market.
I need an E-ink laptop(or word processor). Writers will love it. Freewrite will be robbing writers till then.
Use the Onyx Boox Nova or Note, a tablet stand, a Bluetooth Keyboard, and the MS Word for Mobile app. You’ll get distraction free writing on a bigger screen that may be backlit for the same price. No color though.
I do this on days I’m really having a hard time concentrating. Otherwise I just type in my laptop.
I think it’s a great option and would be in —- as long as it’s not outrageously expensive. I don’t like reading on my tablet much, but I do like color for certain books and reading material.