e-Paper - A New Generation of Screens with New Applications?

The applications of e-paper cover a wide range of technologies and uses, some of which are already a reality. Through very precise analysis conducted
worldwide, and based on an inventory of products and a large selection of case studies, this reports helps measure the stakes that e-paper represents for a number of sectors.

Key questions
- What are the key technologies used in e-Paper? Do they have preferred areas of application?
- Who are the key players in the e-Paper value chain, on both the technology provider and investor side of the equation?
- What are the areas of application spurring the development of e-Paper?
- What impact will the development of e-Paper have on the telecom sector?
- What is the outlook for e-paper in each industry sector?

Description of more than 100 e-Paper projects

1. Technologies
1.1. Main types of technology
- Electrophoretics or particle technology
- ChLCD
- Electrochromism
- Electro-wetting
- Backplanes
- Other technologies
1.2. Expected developments up to 2012
- Colour, video, flexibility, cost
- Roadmap for e-paper
1.3. Other display technologies
- E-paper vs. LCD, OLED

2. Key players
2.1. Key technology-side players
- e-paper technology chain
- R&D labs, frontplane, backplane
- Profiles of key players
2.2. Influential players: investors & major clients
- Weight of players from the imaging, chemical, defence, CE, logistics & distribution, stationery, post, print media & publishing sectors

3. e-paper markets and applications
3.1. Print media
- Global print media market
- Applications in the print media industry
- Case study: Les Echos
- Presentation of 25 projects
3.2. Publishing
- State of the publishing market
- Application in the publishing industry
- Case studies: Kindle (Amazon), Feedbooks
- Presentation of 15 projects
3.3. Consumer electronics
- e-book readers
- e-book reader market, 2008-2012
- Presentation of 15 readers
- Case study: Sony Reader
- Watches
- Analysis of watches and clocks (e-paper screen)
- Outlook in the luxury watch market
- Peripherals and other accessories
- Presentation of 10 CE products
- Case study: Ambient Devices
- Devices with small screens
3.4. Retail
- e-paper labels in stores
- Electronic label markets
- Challenges for retail
- Leading e-paper label players
- Presentation of 10 retail projects
- Case study: Tesco
- Logistics applications: RFID combinations
- Case study: Deutsche Post
3.5. Advertising and display
- Outdoor advertising
- Display advertising market
- Development of electronic display
- Case study: Clear Channel
- Presentation of 10 outdoor display ad projects
- Point of sale advertising
- Possibilities created by Ink-In-Motion solutions
3.6. Telecoms
- Mobile phone
- Case study: Motofone F3 (Motorola)
- Benchmark of 5 mobiles (e-paper screen)
- Content-centric mobile services
- Operator initiatives
- Case Study: KDDI
- Other initiatives from telcos
- involvement of the telecom industry
3.7. Other markets
- Banking: OTP cards
- Medical: tablets
- Other: decorative objects

4. Outlook
4.1. Levers and impediments to the development of e-paper
- Levers: price of paper, sustainable development, technological developments, integrators, digital content
- Impediments: cost of the solutions, performance, substitutes
4.2. Forecasts
- e-paper market up to 2015
- Roadmap by sector of application

Summary of Tables and Figures

Table 1: Comparison of the major e-Paper technologies
Table 2: e-Paper technology advantages and disadvantages overview
Table 3: e-Paper roadmap
Table 4: Comparison of display technologies
Table 5: Overview of e-Paper technology companies
Table 6: Industrial investors in e-Paper
Table 7: Subscription types for Les Echos e-Paper
Table 8: Benchmark for e-Paper press projects
Table 9: Deployed e-Paper publishing projects
Table 10: e-Paper publishing projects in the test phase
Table 11: Commercially available readers with e-Paper screens
Table 12: Projects for readers with e-Paper screens
Table 13: Watches with e-Paper screens
Table 14: Other commercially available CE products with e-Paper screens
Table 15: CE products with e-Paper screens soon to be available
Table 16: Specialists in electronic labelling offering e-Paper solutions
Table 17: e-Paper label projects in supermarkets
Table 18: Billboard e-Paper projects
Table 19: e-Paper display projects in high traffic public and private locations
Table 20: Companies offering e-Paper POS solutions
Table 21: Commercially available telephones with e-Paper screens
Table 22: Mobile telephone projects using e-Paper
Table 23: Monthly ARPU for mobile services (voice and data) by geographic region, 2003-2007
Table 24: Telecom operators' initiative in digital content on e-Paper
Table 25: e-Paper's advantages in both “paper" and "electronics" technologies
Table 26: Integrators positioned in e-Paper
Figure 1: Segmented and matrix displays
Figure 2: Principle of electrophoresis technology
Figure 3: E Ink's process for manufacturing an e-Paper screen
Figure 4: SiPix Microcup
Figure 5: Roll-to-roll printing process
Figure 6: BiNem structure in two liquid crystal states
Figure 7: Principle of the technology developed by Fujitsu
Figure 8: Principle of electrochromic windows
Figure 9: Principle of electrowetting
Figure 10: Opalux's colour technology design
Figure 11: Liquavista's ColorBright
Figure 12: LG Philips' 16.7 million colour screen
Figure 13: Nemoptic's BD 1000
Figure 14: Flexible e-Paper screens
Figure 15: Polymer Vision's Readius
Figure 16: e-Paper value chain
Figure 17: Influential companies in e-Paper
Figure 18: Change in paid circulation for daily newspapers in Europe and the United States, annual growth rate (%)
Figure 19: Readers offered by Les Echos for their e-Paper offer
Figure 20: Worldwide publishing market (billion EUR)
Figure 21: Amazon's Kindle
Figure 22: Estimated increase in worldwide reader sales
Figure 23: Fujitsu's Flepia reader models
Figure 24: Example of commercialised readers with e-Paper screens
Figure 25: Example of communications watches (without e-Paper)
Figure 26: Citizen Watch's mural clock with e-Paper screen
Figure 27: Seiko and Phosphor watches with e-Paper screens
Figure 28: Weather station with e-Paper screen
Figure 29: Storage peripherals integrating an e-Paper screen
Figure 30: Prototypes for laptops with e-Paper screens
Figure 31: Comparison between an LCD label and an e-Paper label
Figure 32: Tesco's e-Paper electronic labelling test
Figure 33: Examples of Pricer's electronic labels
Figure 34: Worldwide RFID market in billions of USD from 2008 through 2018
Figure 35: PARIFLEX Project
Figure 36: Worldwide advertising market and the outdoor advertising share (million USD)
Figure 37: Digital display's market share compared to traditional display in Western Europe
Figure 38: Billboard with e-Paper screen
Figure 39: Examples of POS panels using Ink-In-Motion screens
Figure 40: Expansion of mobile terminal market worldwide, in value and units
Figure 41: Motorola's Motofone F3
Figure 42: Mobile telephones with e-Paper screens
Figure 43: Mobile phone keypads using e-Paper
Figure 44: P-Per mobile telephone design
Figure 45: Most viewed mobile sites in France by category
Figure 46: Additional e-Paper screen for telephones
Figure 47: SoftBank Telecom's e-Paper solution
Figure 48: Example of smart cards with e-Paper screens
Figure 49: Touch screen tablet with an e-Paper screen for the medical sector
Figure 50: Innovative e-Paper uses
Figure 51: Environmental impact of paper, web and e-Paper solutions for reading a newspaper
Figure 52: Projection for e-Paper market growth (billion USD)
Figure 53: Status of e-Paper adoption by sector

e-Paper vs. Print Media and Publishing

Is printed content at the dawn of a new era?

In its report devoted to the outlook for e-paper, IDATE provides an analysis of the issues surrounding electronic paper technologies, examines the status of these technologies and the challenges inherent in the main vertical markets, notably for print media and publishing.

The electronic paper, or e-paper, market is just now taking off, built chiefly around a few central applications. Electronic paper, which is sometimes referred to as electronic ink, is not really just a single technology but rather a set of electronically modifiable display technologies used to mimic the appearance of paper. e-paper is therefore competing not only with ordinary paper products (loose leaf, cardboard) but also with screen technologies (LCD, OLED). The e-paper market is still a small one but is expected to reach 2 billion USD by 2012, starting to build a real momentum in 2010 – centred initially around a few applications but eventually extending to a great many sectors.

- At a time when content is being digitised and revenue is shrinking in most media segments (with the exception of the free press) due to competition from the Internet, the print media sector is making the logical move towards embracing this technology as an additional medium, offering a new (more interactive) approach to information. The switch to electronic versions also helps bring down raw material, production and distribution costs, which account for nearly 60% of total costs.

- Purely proprietary initiatives, such as those rolled out by Les Echos and Yantai Daily in China, are still few and far between, largely because the devices are still too expensive. We are, however, seeing a growing number of newsstand type offers based on Amazon's Kindle in the United States (which carries all the biggest daily papers from around the globe), and on Orange and SFR devices in France, which offer the major French dailies. But, the performance of the devices is still considered below par (response time, colour), notably by IFRA, an association of major print media companies, when
compared to laptops or mobile phones. Investing in a dedicated device just for reading newspapers would seem a hard sell, but this device could also be used by the publishing industry for e-books.

- The publishing market is reporting meagre growth in most industrialised countries. Unlike other content, digitising books is still an area that has been little developed, except in Japan (mostly for Manga comics). Publishers are nevertheless expecting a gradual shift to digital, taking advantage of the benefits of electronic formats (indexing, storage, future-proofing, interactivity, DVD type bonus material) and of major digitisation initiatives.

- General interest publishing is making slow forays into digital, largely to avoid an upheaval in its traditional distribution channels (bookshops). e-paper also suffers from the fact that it does not offer the same visceral pleasures as a book, and forces readers to change their habits – which is why is has remained a niche consumer market up to now. Several publishers have, however, already associated themselves with Amazon's Kindle, which offers a reader with a 3G connection (connectivity included), a small selection of integrated services (including free and unlimited access to Wikipedia) and a content distribution platform, for a standard price of 9.99 USD a piece for books from the New York Times best seller list (i.e. below retail). This strategy is similar to Apple's approach to music with the iTunes/iPod combination. Despite major limitations (interoperability, minimalist design), Amazon has already sold close to 300,000 units, targeting technophiles and book lovers first and foremost.

- Emergence of specialised applications: e-paper seems to be best suited to business-related editorial content, with a more educational or encyclopaedic style. The e-paper device can hold large volumes of content and be used when on the move (low energy consumption, lightweight), even in extreme environments. e-paper is already used in aerospace applications and is being tested by the legal sector and by various manufacturing sectors (e.g. for maintenance manuals). In the realm of consumer applications, epaper could be used initially for applications such as travel guides.

Players & Projects profiled in this report

Technology-side players

- Aveso
- Ntera
- Bridgestone
- Opalux
- E Ink
- Plastic Logic
- Epson
- Polymer Vision
- Fujitsu Prime
- View International
- Fuji Xerox
- Qualcomm
- Kent Displays
- Siemens
- Liquavista
- SiPix
- Nemoptic
- ZBD Display

Projects profiled

Print media
De Tijd , Esquire, Handelsblad , The Mainichi , Le Monde, Newspapers, NRC Handelsblad, La Repubblica, Yantai Daily…

Publishing
Arinc, Gill & Macmillan, Feedbooks, Flamarion, Hachette, IGN, M21 Editions, Mobipocket, Numilog, Sweet & Maxwell…

e-book readers
Bookeen, eRead, Ganaxa, iRex Technologies, Jinke Electronics, Matsushita, Nemoptic, Neolux, Netronix, Plastic Logic, Polymer Vision, Ricavision, Sony…

Watches
Citizen Watch, Ntera, Phosphor, Seiko Watch

Peripherals
Ambient Device, A-DATA, Lexar, Minoura, Intel, Skullcandy, Smartdisk…

Retail
Kesko Foods, John Lewis, Mitsukoshi, Pricer, Sharp, Tesco, Tradeka, Wanzl …

Outdoor Advertising
Clear Channel Outdoor, Havas Euromedia, JC Decaux, Lamar Outdoor Advertising, Astrec, Hamburg Hochbahn, JR East, The Mainichi Newspapers, Yomiuri Shimbun, Kanagawa Chuo Kotsu,…

Telecoms
KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Vodafone, Casio, NTT Docomo, Hisense, Hitachi, SoftBank, Silitech, ...

Case Studies

- Amazon
- KDDI
- Ambient Devices
- Les Echos
- Clear Channel
- Motorola
- Deutsche Post
- Tesco
- Feedbooks
- Sony