Taiwanese firm PVI acquires Amazon Kindle display maker E-Ink.
“The ePaper display module market will grow to over $3 billion by 2013. This market will see further growth with the emergence of color displays and flexible displays, serving eBook/eTextbook, eNewspaper/eMagazine and eDocument markets. Currently, electrophoretic display technology has more than 90% market share in the overall ePaper displays, and E Ink is the #1 supplier of electrophoretic materials,” according Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, DisplaySearch’s Director of Display Technologies.
Here’s a list of the current E-Ink activity:
* Oprah Winfrey endorsed Amazon’s Kindle on live television calling it “her favorite gadget”. Subsequently Amazon’s Kindle 2 has proven highly popular and the Kindle DX enters the eTextbook and eNewspaper space with a large 9.7” screen.
* SONY launched a new PRS-700 Reader with integrated touch screen.
* Chinese astronauts brought the Hanwan N510 eBook into outer space on a recent Shenzhou 7 mission.
* PVI, Epson, LG Display, PolymerVision, Hewlett-Packard and Plastic Logic demonstrated flexible active matrix displays using E Ink Vizplex imaging film.
* E Ink Corporation teamed with Esquire Magazine and Ford Corporation on the first ePaper animated magazine cover.
* In May 2009, Verizon announced the Samsung Alias 2 cellphone, with a changeable keypad made with E Ink Vizplex imaging film.