GLEN ALLEN, Va., 2 June 2008. The market for electronic paper displays, known as e-paper, will reach $4.8 billion by 2015 say analysts at NanoMarkets, an industry analyst firm in Glen Allen, Va., in a report entitled The Future of E-Paper: A Technology Assessment and Market Forecast.
E-paper emulates the appearance of ink on paper, reflects light like ordinary paper and can hold text and images indefinitely without drawing electricity. Some e-paper technologies can use plastic substrate and electronics to make the display flexible.
Potential applications include e-book readers capable of displaying digital versions of books and e-paper magazines, maps, charts and graphics, electronic pricing labels in retail shops, time tables at bus stations, and electronic billboards.
For the immediate future most e-paper firms will find the signage space to be the most promising market for their technology, especially in electronics shelf labels (ESL) and point of purchase (POP) displays, NanoMarkets analysts say.
The ESL/POP market will generate more than $1 billion in e-paper revenues by 2015 because e-paper can improve on existing technology through image quality and the ability to display graphics.
E-paper provides flexibility, readability in bright sunlight, and ultra-low power consumption, analysts point out. It can be fabricated on a flexible substrate, and is attractive for applications in mobile communication and computing devices where existing displays are often hard to see outdoors, drain batteries quickly and are too small for many applications.
NanoMarkets projects that cell phones alone are expected to generate almost $450 million in e-paper sales by 2015. The growing ability of e-paper to support color will unlock key signage and mobile communications markets, NanoMarkets analysts say. E-paper color is beginning to use more sophisticated technology such as color filters incorporating white pixels and the latest stacked display designs.
The report forecasts shipments of e-paper products and performance improvements expected over the next eight years. Technologies covered in the report include bistable twisted nematic LCDs, cholesteric LCDs, electrochromic displays, electrophoretic displays, MEMS and electrowetting displays.
For more information contact NanoMarkets online at www.nanotopblog.com.
