14 DAY TRIAL // Now that the e-reader market has mostly stabilized as a segment that will go on existing for years to come, E ink, the primary maker of displays for such items, seems to have gotten an idea of how many screens it will be able to ship.
E-readers have come to the point where the main, or only, way for them to stand apart form each other is to incorporate assets that aren't necessarily what their sort of gadget it aimed for.
While they are designed as gadgets for reading documents of the TXT, ePUB, PDF, DOC and other varieties, their feature sets hardly stop there.
MP3 audio support is practically a default capability, for instance, and while support for audiobooks does demand it, it is no mystery that most customers use it for listening to music, whether they are reading at the same time or not.
What's more, web browsing is practically a given on current-generation models and, for those with color screens, even video playback exists.
Still, when it comes down to it, all e-book readers of today, except for the above mentioned color ones (which can almost qualify as tablets anyway) use e-paper.
This includes the B&N Nook, the Amazon Kindle and even the recently-launched Kobo.
In other words, E Ink, as the maker of e-paper screens, is going to see its shipments of panels grow along with the sales of all of them.
Turns out that the outfit really does have quite the target level of shipments in mind for the ongoing year (2011).
According to a recent Digitimes report, E Ink holdings expects between 20 and 30 million EPD panels to be sent out.
That said, production capacity expansion is also in plan, set to commence in September, to the point where, compared to three years ago, it will be tripled.