E-Paper Markets: An Eight-Year Market and Technology Forecast

Abstract

Electronic paper (e-paper) has recently burst onto the scene as a radically new display technology that matches the characteristics of paper in terms of flexibility and readability, but adds the ability for constant updating from a network. The first applications for e-paper have been found in book readers and novelty products, such as flexible clocks. But e-paper is a serious product with sizeable addressable markets, especially in signage and smart shelving and in roll-up mobile displays. Major electronics and materials firms, as well as the usual slew of start-ups are already investing heavily in this technology.

Nonetheless, many uncertainties and challenges beset the e-paper market. There are competing technologies -- electrophoretic inks and cholesteric LCDs, for example. Many of the products being designed with e-paper are entirely novel and have no established markets. E-paper-based book readers may be the next consumer electronics hit or the whole concept could very well crash and burn. Similarly, there are no established supply chains for e-paper products which has left technology developers to try and create them while at the same time attempting to manufacture their own products.

This new report from NanoMarkets will provide a thorough market and technology analysis of the e-paper market. It will analyze the key materials and production technologies and assess in which market segments they are likely to take off or fail. Applications sectors for e-paper that will be discussed and forecast include smart-shelves, smart cards, smart packaging, book-readers, cell-phone displays, computer displays, information displays, clocks and other novelty products. The report will also project performance improvements expected over the next eight years and assess the marketing importance of such factors as flexibility, system architecture, resolutions, backplane switching speeds, and color capability.

The report will also provide critical profiles of the leading providers of e-paper and a detailed eight-year market forecast of e-paper markets, broken out by application and technology. This report builds on the highly-regarded research that NanoMarkets has previously published in the display and printed electronics sectors.