In the field of global displays, there is a special branch, that is e-ink displays, which are also often referred to as epaper displays. Speaking of   its speciality, it can be summarized in three aspects:

The first is that the ink screen product itself is special.

The second is the form of end products and the special characteristics of terminal manufacturers.

The third is the special supply chain of e-paper display.

Today, we will try our best to use simple and easy to understand language to talk about these special features in detail, and then summarize them, and give you some thoughts. If you can find new opportunities and business opportunities based on your own fields, it would be the author’s great honor.

First,When it comes to the particularity of ink screen products, it can be divided into two aspects: advantages and disadvantages:

1. The most important advantages of the ink screen are ultra-low power consumption and eye protection. Don't look at this only listed two advantages. If you take out each advantage, it can be said to be a trump card. The ultralow power consumption of the ink screen, as long as the screen does not change and does not refresh, almost no power consumption, a small button battery can make the small size epaper display work continuously for several months or longer without frequent refresh, this feature is very suitable for end products that require low power consumption, such as price tags and information display boards that do not need to be refreshed frequently. The characteristics of the ink screen to protect the eyes,the display effect like ture paper, make it the best choice for e-paper books. Today, when most of screens pursue refresh rate, resolution and color saturation, it is also can’t be replaced. Compared with the traditional display screen, the effect of the ink screen is more comfortable and clearer under the sunlight .

2. The shortcomings of the e-paper displays are also very obvious. The most important ones are the color, resolution and refresh rate, which are almost incomparable with the traditional screen, but the technology has been improving and iterating. In terms of color, in addition to black and white ， black 、white and red, there are four colors, seven colors and full color proucts, and the resolution is also close to TFT and OLED displays. In terms of refresh, there are also leading manufacturers who have achieved the effect of playing videos through technological innovation, but it will take time to be perfect.

Second. When it comes to end products and manufacturers, everyone's impression may still be on Kindle e-paper books and e-paper shelf labels in Sam's supermarket.

It is true that these are the two largest application product areas of the e-paper screen, that is, readers and shelf labels. The main players of the reader are: Amazon, IFLYTEK, Boox, Xiaomi, Ireader, etc. The main players of the shelf label are: Hanshow, Baozi, etc., although it seems that there are not many players in these two product fields, if there is not a large company with strength and customer base, it is difficult to surpass in terms of supply chain, brand power and product competitiveness.

In the past two years, with the rapid development of the IOT industry, in addition to e-paper books and epaper shelf labels, many new application scenarios have been added to the ink screen product area.

These scenarios are also areas that have absolute demand for the advantages of e-paper. For example, ink screen conference table cards and seat cards, e-paper badges or student cards, eink bus stop signs, ink screen subway pull rings, epaper information display cards, e-paper digital RMB bank cards, etc.

In each of the above fields, at least By 2022, it will be a blue ocean market for small and mediumsized electronic companies, because there is no leading manufacturer yet, but the demand is still very considerable from a global perspective, and this is the biggest opportunity. For example, the e-paper   badge, this year, with the exposure of badges worn by employees of the Winter Olympics, has really caught fire. For example, at least 8,000 bus stop signs in Shanghai have been installed and can be seen everywhere in streets and alleys. Most of the bus stop signs in other cities have not been replaced. You can use your imagination.

Another example is the digital RMB bank card that CHINA is implementing. Some manufacturers have released physical bank cards with ink screens that display the balance and key. Although there are barriers to entry for ordinary companies in this field, you may wish to pay attention to whether there is an opportunity to enter. There are also e-paper pull rings in the subway. At present, several large cities have installed them in subway cars. They can display color advertising pages with low power consumption and can be positioned and displayed at regular intervals, which not only save papers and labor costs, but also create more opportunities for subway advertising. The rest of the application scenarios, such as ink screen classroom interactive desks, elevator maintenance record cards, and paperless SOP screens in factory production lines (replacement of frequent replacement of papers), will not be expanded one by one.

Third. When it comes to the epaer supply chain, first of all I have to say EINK, after Tianma/BOE and other large traditional display manufacturers tried the development of epaper display and found that the market prospect is not great and there are barriers to patents, they gradually gave up the continuous investment in this product field and Research and Development, in the end, EINK has always insisted on research and development ,investment and innovation, which has led to the current pattern of the electronic paper supply chain.

EINK has also cultivated several ink screen manufacturers and processors in the mainland to provide ink screen supply for the growing demand of the price tag market. The participants include not only traditional display manufacturers such as BOE, but also DKE, which focuses on e-paper dispalys.

Above the screen supply chain are epaer solution providers. There are not many such suppliers. Currently, only Shanghai Jiaruo (OKRA Technologies) is the only one that fully focuses on e-paper solutions in this field. Its product cover epaper displays, epaper solutions and e-paper terminal products .

Other suppliers such as Weixue Electronics (Waveshare, main products are DEMO boards that are mainly used by research and development , and also make various other module products) and Jiaxian Electronics (Good display,mainly for e-paper display and LCM sales) are also participating providers in the supply chain.

Finally, from the perspective of 2022, the e-paper industry is still promising in the IOTrelated industry market, especially in the fields of bus stop signs, subway pull rings, conference table cards, information display cards,badges, student cards and other fields. It is still a blue ocean. We hope All partners in the electronics industry can combine their focus areas and customer groups, make bold attempts, participate in them, and become the pioneers of the new blue ocean.