Aggressive growth forecast for e paper market
According to a recent industry report, the e-paper market is growing at an unprecedented rate and is expected to hit US$3.1 billion by 2022. Although the concept of e-paper was first developed over thirty-five years ago, this positive growth forecast can be attributed to the global demand for durable and low-cost technologies, as well as a concerted effort to move towards greener solutions.
Over recent years, e-paper has evolved from being seen as an expensive gimmick towards a more mature, credible commercially viable and multi-purpose technology. From the Fuze card which we looked at in our last post, to jewellery, digital signage, terminals and everything in between, flexible plastic displays are quickly becoming a preferred alternative to glass for certain applications.
Although still cheaper than e-paper, glass leaves little room for companies to differentiate during the R&D or product design phase and for many applications it often provides a sub-standard end-user experience, for example in terms of poor daylight readability and robustness.
In contrast, e-paper is the only display that is truly lightweight, robust and readable in any environment and it is these attributes that make it particularly compelling as a technology that lends itself to product innovation. However, this innovation is not purely limited to new products. A general drive for a more environmentally friendly society and devices means that there is real potential to rethink and evolve existing products too. A good example of this is Blendology who recently used our plastic displays to create interactive conference badges that can be rewritten over and over again, saving a huge amount on printing and paper wastage.
It is an exciting time to be operating in the e-paper display market and as competition tightens, it will be really interesting to see which products are developed, reimagined and achieve mass adoption as the technology advances. The possibilities are endless and perhaps a world where low-power, interactive screens are the norm could be a lot closer than we think.