On Monday, Prime View International (PVI), the world’s highest volume supplier of ePaper display modules announced that it will acquire E Ink, the leader in e-paper display materials. According to the press release, the companies were already partners in supporting e-book manufactures worldwide but by forming a single company that is dedicated to e-paper, they will be able to improve e-paper displays, expand capacity, and speed up new product development. The press release also provided a few very interesting statistics about the potential growth for e-reader devices.
Vinita Jakhanwal, an analyst from iSuppli commented, “The market for electronic book devices such as the SONY Reader and Amazon Kindle is forecasted to grow from 1.1 million units in 2008 to 20 million units in 2012, a cumulative annual growth rate of 105% over the four-year period.”
Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, Director of Display Technologies for DisplaySearch noted, “The ePaper display module market will grow to over $3 billion by 2013. This market will see further growth with the emergence of color displays and flexible displays, serving eBook/eTextbook, eNewspaper/eMagazine and eDocument markets.”
These statistics support other recent predictions that e-readers will have a considerable impact on our market in the near future.
