14 DAY TRIAL // With e-readers selling about as well as ever, it was inevitable that E Ink, being the prime supplier of displays for such items, would profit from it.
E Ink just published its financial results, at least those that it can safely speak about since the year is not done yet.
Then again, any company would feel the urge to brag when reaching a veritable milestone in terms of revenues.
E Ink reached not just any milestone, though, but the very high sum of NT$ 30 million, which translates into $1 billion and 729.71 million Euro.
In other words, this is one of those instances where the difficult worldwide economy didn't manage to inflict much damage.
Obviously, sales of e-readers were the main driving force, e-paper continuing to be E Ink's primary revenue source (30 million are expected to sell in 2012).
Speaking of e-paper, the Pearl is the one selling most broadly, though it is easy enough to assume that the Triton color display, which was previewed in October, will pick up the task sooner or later (or not, if e-readers stay greyscale).
“Despite the difficult economy, sales of our ePaper and LCD displays continue to rise due in part to the new wave of eReaders and tablets debuting just in time for the holiday season,” said Scott Liu, chairman of E Ink.
“We also see tremendous opportunity for our Triton color displays for eTextbooks that we believe will transform education.”
E Ink also saw its LCD business growing and expects tablet makers to call on it more and more.
This would undoubtedly be a good moment for a stronger push in this area too, with NVIDIA's Kal-El Tegra 3 finally official.
Nevertheless, e-readers will, in the end, remain the foremost money source, especially with their added appeal from Amazon Kindle owners getting to loan books now and the rising performance of e-readers in general (B&N Nook got an upgrade not long ago).