The commercial success of the Amazon Kindle e-reader and the lesser yet still quite substantial uptake of e-book readers such as the iRex iLIad or the SONY PRS family have sparked up a large interest in e-paper display technologies.
 
E-paper displays mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike conventional flat panel displays, it doesn't require a backlight to illuminate its pixels as it reflects light like paper does and can hold text and images indefinitely without drawing power. Usually, most versions can also be flexible, thinner and more robust than other display technologies.

Forecasts by technology and application to 2020: The total market size for e-paper displays in 2010 is $131 million rising to $7.45 billion in 2020. This is the value of the display front plane only - it is not the value of the device the display is sold in. Growth is predominately from demand of e-readers but other applications such as signage and posters will become a substantial market.
 
This report provides forecasts for e-paper displays for the following applications:

• e-readers/books
• Cell Phone, Music Player Display
• Smart Card Display
• Wearable (clothing, watches, military etc)
• Posters/Signage (non retail)
• Point of purchase/Posters/Signage & Smart Packaging (retail)
• Consumer electronics and white goods (excluding other categories here)
• Other new applications
• E-paper display technologies

Out of the technologies that could be suitable for e-paper display applications, electrophoretic displays are seeing the strongest growth at the moment, particularly in e-readers. Other technologies are also being trialed however such as the FUJITSU color reader that utilizes cholesteric LCD technology.
 
Themochromic, Electrochromic and electrowetting displays are already being used in a diverse range of applications from the world's first disposable display on a gift card and battery tester to indicators on batteryless, wireless switches. There is a place for all these technologies, indeed, many new ones frequently enter the scene. This report addresses appraisal of the options, company progress and commercial adoption.

What you will learn

How big will the e-reader market become? When will e-paper displays be available in full color and when will the flexible versions reach the market? Which technologies will gain the biggest market share and which products will become popular with consumers in the next few years?


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

2. INTRODUCTION

2.1. Scope
2.2. How e-paper displays are being applied
2.3. Flexible is a big market
2.4. Color, switching speed
2.5. E-Books
2.6. Cellphones, music players
2.7. Smart card displays
2.8. Electronic apparel
2.9. Posters/signage
2.9.1. Clear Channel
2.10. Smart packaging/brand enhancement
2.10.2. Duracell
2.10.3. Cloetta bisquit/ACREO winking sign
2.10.4. VTT Technology beer package game
2.11. E-paper displays have the largest market share for all flexible displays

3. ELECTROPHORETIC DISPLAYS

3.1. E Ink
3.1.1. Technology
3.1.2. Products
3.2. Sipix: Microcup® electrophoretic display
3.2.1. Technology
3.2.2. AUO and Sipix
3.3. Bridgestone: Quick Response Liquid Powder Display™

4. ELECTROWETTING DISPLAYS

4.2. Liquavista
4.2.1. Technology
4.3. ITRI, Taiwan and PVI, Taiwan
4.4. adt, Germany

5. OTHER BISTABLE DISPLAYS

5.1. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
5.2. Kent Displays
5.3. TRED
5.3.1. Technology
5.4. Nemoptic
5.4.1. Technology
5.5. Products

6. ELECTROCHROMIC DISPLAYS

6.2. Ntera
6.3. Acreo
6.3.1. Electrochemical displays on paper
6.4. Aveso
6.5. Ajjer

7. DISPLAY MAKERS

7.1. Prime View International (PVI)
7.1.1. Technology
7.1.2. Flexible e-paper displays using EPLaR
7.2. Plastic Logic
7.3. LG
7.4. i-Rex
7.5. Samsung
7.6. Seiko Epson
7.7. NEC
7.8. Polymer Vision
7.8.2. Technology
7.8.3. What went wrong

8. OTHER RELATED FLEXIBLE DISPLAY COMPONENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS

8.1. Electrofluidic Displays: Gamma-Dynamics
8.2. Thermochromic displays
8.3. Optical shutter film: Citala, USA
8.4. Adhesives, Delo Germany

9. E-READERS

9.1. Content availability
9.2. Amazon Kindle and Kindle 2
9.2.2. Amazon Kindle DX
9.2.3. FUJITSU FLEPia
9.3. Iliad & Digital Reader
9.4. SONY Readers
9.5. Brother Industries, Japan
9.6. TXTR
9.7. Hanvon

10. FORECASTS

10.1. Forecasts by technology
10.1.1. Forecasts for color versus non color 2009-2020
10.1.2. Electrophoretic displays market forecasts 2009-2020
10.1.3. Electrochromic displays market forecasts 2009-2020
10.1.4. Forecasts by application
10.2. Costing

11 APPENDIX 1: LIST OF E READERS, PAST AND PRESENT

TABLES

1.1. Market forecasts by technology, 2009-2020
1.2. Market forecasts by application, 2009-2020
2.1. Main factors driving the rapid growth of electronic smart packaging
10.1. Market forecasts by technology, 2009-2020
10.2. Market Forecasts for electronic paper and the market share for color electronic paper, 2009-2020
10.3. Electrophoretic displays market forecasts 2009-2020
10.4. Electrochromic displays market forecasts 2009-2020
10.5. Market forecasts by application, 2009-2020
 
FIGURES

1.1. Market forecasts by technology, 2009-2020
1.2. Market forecasts by application, 2009-2019
2.1. Printed Electronics Applications
2.2. Flexible devices offer advantages in terms of consumer satisfaction
2.3. Samsung Alias™ 2
2.4. Reprogrammable electrophoretic decoration on Hitachi mobile phones only needs power when being changed
2.5. T-equaliser animated t-shirt
2.6. An example of the display on a billboard picture in use in London
2.7. Duracell batteries/Avery Dennison tester
2.8. Cloetta
2.9. VTT Technology beer package game
3.1. Electronic ink microcapsules
3.2. EPD pixel appearance
3.3. Retail Shelf Edge Labels from UPM
3.4. Secondary display on a cell phone
3.5. Samsung Alias™ 2
3.6. SEIKO E-Ink watch
3.7. Lexar portable USB flash drive
3.8. World's first display on a magazine cover
3.9. Microcup® Structure
3.10. Sipix Roll-to-Roll micro embossing process
3.11. Embosser mold and embossed microcups
3.12. Structure of Sipix e-paper
3.13. Electrophoretic display on a commercially sold financial card
3.14. SD card from A Data with a Sipix display
3.15. Sipix Clock
3.16. Schematic of the features of Electronic Liquid Powder™
3.17. Bridgestone e-paper price tag
3.18. Bridgestone fully bendable electronic paper
3.19. Relationship between radius of curvature and reflectivity in the states of black and white in flexible QR-ELP™
3.20. Roll to roll processing steps for Bridgestone's e-paper display
3.21. Flexible Full Color QR-LPD
4.1. Example of a droplet contracting and relaxing
4.2. Water droplets on hydrophobic surface (a) without and (b) with voltage applied
4.3. Electrowetting display principle
4.4. Comparison of power consumption for a variety of video displays
4.5. The concept of the "future of electronic paper" according to Liquavista
4.6. Excellent viewing angles in TFT backplanes and backlights
4.7. Flow chart of the manufacture process
4.8. adt electrowetting displays
4.9. EnOcean wireless switch
5.1. Color LCD by photo alignment
5.2. Color printable flexible LCD
5.3. KENT Displays' Reflex™ LCD
5.4. TRED's EMD² technology
5.5. Principle of operation for Nemoptic's BiNem® technology
5.6. A4 e-paper display
6.1. Electrochromic display on a Valentine's card sold by Marks and Spencer in the UK in 2004 and electrochromic display with drive circuits in a laminate for smart cards..
6.2. Ntera Display
6.3. The dollhouse. When energy is added to the system the color of the wallpaper changes and a picture appears on the wall
6.4. Two state electrolytic display on paper
6.5. Seven segment display printed with bi-stable inks
6.6. Aveso electrochromic display
7.1. Glass e-book backplane
7.2. Field shielded pixels
7.3. TFT design
7.4. Glass e-Book module making
7.5. THE EPLaR process
7.6. TFT DC stability
7.7. Mobilities on glass, EPLaR before release & EPLaR after release
7.8. 9.7'' and 6'' flexible e-paper displays by PVI
7.9. Photograph of a 9.7" EPLaR display
7.10. The Plastic Logic e-reader
7.11. A4 size Flexible Color e-paper
7.12. Cross section of LG's e-paper display
7.13. Seiko Epson e-reader
7.14. A3 and A4 e-paper displays
7.15. The Readius® by Polymer Vision
7.16. A Polymer Vision display
7.17. Display Processing Steps
8.1. Comparison of electrophoretic/electrofluidic display performance in color and grayscale
8.2. Duracell battery tester
8.3. Interactive game on a beer package by VTT Technologies in Finland
8.4. Edge encapsulation of an electrophoretic display with adhesive (blue). The DELO adhesive can be cured through the UV-blocked barrier layer (glass, PET, PEN, etc.) by means of visible light.
8.5. Selection of different development products
8.6. Example for the flexibility of a cured adhesive film with a thickness of 150μm (no substrate, just adhesive).
9.1. Kindle and Kindle 2
9.2. Kindle DX
9.3. Effect of 16 level grayscale and smoothing algorithm on text display
9.4. The Fujitsu FLEPia
9.5. Digital Reader and Iliad by iRex Technologies
9.6. The device uses an ink display and incorporates a touch screen
9.7. The SONY LIBRIé
9.8. Brother Industries large area e-reader
9.9. The txtr reader is based on E-Ink technology
9.10. Hanvon Technology claims the world's first 5" Electronic Book series,
10.1. Market forecasts by technology, 2009-2020
10.2. Market Forecasts for electronic paper and the market share for full color electronic paper, 2009-2020
10.3. Market forecasts by application, 2009-2020
10.4. Component cost breakdown for the Amazon Kindle 2