E Ink Holdings Inc. (8069.TWO), the originator, pioneer, and global commercial leader in ePaper technology, last week announced a strategic partnership and memorandum of understanding with AUO, a supplier of display and smart application solutions, to develop large-size color ePaper displays.
E Ink will provide full-color ePaper modules, while AUO will provide integrated software and hardware technologies along with the TFT backplane components.
Dr. FY Gan, President of E Ink said “E Ink has been dedicated to the development of ePaper technology and applications, with years of research efforts that have redefined industries like retail. Currently, ePaper technology is advancing towards full-color and large-size displays. With qualities resembling printed posters, ultra-low power consumption, and no light pollution, ePaper is highly suitable for retail advertising or public information displays. We are eager to collaborate with AUO to expand the use of color ePaper in applications for retail and grow our ecosystem of partners.”
AUO’s Smart Retail Business Group has cultivated a global demand through its subsidiaries, deploying technologies like digital signage and electronic shelf labels to enable retail’s digital transformation. Despite the priority of implementing digital tools in retail environments, retailers often rely on in-store advertising via printed posters, which lacks dynamic content management for use cases like promotions or discounts. E Ink’s Spectra 6 color ePaper offers an alternative to paper posters. With its vivid, high-saturation colors and ultra-low power consumption, the display quality matches traditional printed posters. Integrated with AUO’s software and hardware platform, retailers can manage all consumer-facing points of purchase on a single cloud platform, encompassing LCD, LED, electronic shelf labels, and large-size color ePaper displays.
Andy Yang, General Manager of AUO’s Smart Retail Business Group was quoted as saying “Paper posters in retail stores incur significant costs related to production, transportation, and manual installation,” said “Changing these posters, especially under the constraints of challenges related to labor shortages and supply chain disruptions, poses significant challenges to retailers. The strength of AUO Smart Retail is our ability to address these pain points for our clients. Through our close collaboration with E Ink, we are working together to develop a color ePaper solution ideal for displaying static marketing materials. We believe this not only addresses several paint points for our clients but also reduces wastes associated with paper posters, contributing to carbon reduction efforts and supporting the global trend towards decarbonization through a paperless digital experience.”
At this year’s Touch Taiwan exhibition we are told that AUO will launch a cloud-based platform solution that integrates digital signage and electronic shelf labels. Its integrated CMS serves over 30,000 client nodes globally. Looking forward, AUO plans to introduce additional large-size, ultra-low power consumption, energy-efficient display solutions using ePaper technology, aiming to expand their partner ecosystem in smart applications to build a sustainable future together.
E Ink has researched the CO2 effects of using paper versus ePaper displays and found significant CO2 savings with the use of E Ink ePaper displays. Over the past seven years, 600 million three-inch electronic shelf labels (ESLs) have been installed worldwide. If it is assumed that the price and information are changed four times a day, ePaper tags can reduce CO2 emissions by 32,000 times when compared to a single-use paper price tag. These findings compare the amount of CO2 emitted in producing the electricity necessary to run 600 million ESLs for seven years with the amount of CO2 emitted in producing 600 million paper price tags of the same size changed four times a day for seven years.
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