E-Paper Display Sales Increase Fivefold Thanks to E-Readers

When looking at the rapid rise of an emerging market, it is always interesting to see just how much of an impact it has on all the other segments it comes in contact with. In fact, a very successful device, while it may not necessarily have a great effect on its maker's position, may cause a shift in the performance of companies that deal in the components used to make it. This is exactly what has happened with e-readers.

With the Internet growing so rapidly and information being more readily available, it was only a matter of time before books started being digitized. With many of them now waiting to be downloaded, it didn't take long for the first e-readers to be adopted by the masses. For 2009, according to DisplaySearch, this led to electronic paper display sales of 5 million units, which means that just about as many e-book readers sold throughout the same period. This corresponds to a 417% increase compared to 2008, when only 950,000 displays were sold. Out of those 5 million, 66% were 6-inch screens used by the Amazon Kindle e-reader, the representative of the market and the device whose success stirred interest in all companies that joined, or plan to join, the fray.

“Boosted by success from e-books thus far, Amazon is expanding its service offering to help customers access more timely books at low cost. We expect to see other service providers increase their presence in the U.S. and expand e-book adoption in Europe and Asia as well,” said Hiroshi Hayase, DisplaySearch director of small/medium displays.

“Seeing this growth for a new application, especially in the second half of last year, is a vote of confidence from consumers who seem to have embraced e-books. Momentum from e-book popularity last year combined with new, larger-screen products hitting the market right now means that this trend will continue, so we will see large shipment volume increases in the first half of 2010,” Mr. Hayase added.