E Ink and AUO enter into strategic partnership to develop large-size color e-paper displays

E Ink, the renowned specialist in e-paper technology, has announced a strategic partnership and memorandum of understanding with AUO, a supplier of display and smart application solutions, to develop large-size color e-paper displays. E Ink will provide full-color e-paper modules, while AUO will provide integrated software and hardware technologies along with the TFT backplane components.

"E Ink has been dedicated to the development of e-paper technology and applications, with years of research efforts that have redefined industries like retail," said Dr. FY Gan, President of E Ink. "Currently, e-Paper technology is advancing towards full-color and large-size displays. With qualities resembling printed posters, ultra-low power consumption, and no light pollution, e-paper is highly suitable for retail advertising or public information displays. We are eager to collaborate with AUO to expand the use of color e-paper 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 e-paper 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 e-paper displays.

Supporting the global trend towards decarbonisation

"Paper posters in retail stores incur significant costs related to production, transportation and manual installation," said Andy Yang, General Manager of AUO's Smart Retail Business Group. "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 e-paper 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 decarbonisation through a paperless digital experience."

AUO is dedicated to providing solutions for sustainable transformation. At this year's Touch Taiwan exhibition, AUO has launched 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 e-paper 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 e-paper 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, e-paper 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.

About E Ink
According to a company statement, E Ink Holdings Inc, based on technology from MIT's Media Lab, provides an ideal display medium for applications spanning e-readers and e-notes, retail, home, hospital, transportation, logistics, and more, enabling customers to put displays in locations previously impossible. E Ink's electrophoretic display products make it the worldwide leader for e-paper. Its low power displays enable customers to reach their sustainability goals, and E Ink has pledged using 100% renewable energy in 2030 and reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2040. E Ink has been recognized for their efforts by receiving, validation from Science-Based Targets (SBTi) and is listed in both the DJSI World and DJSI Emerging Indexes. Listed in Taiwan's Taipei Exchange (TPEx) and the Luxembourg market, E Ink Holdings is now the world's largest supplier of e-paper displays.

Caption: The collaboration focuses on advancing the companies' offerings in smart retail solutions via low-power and energy-efficient display technology. Pictured on the left is Dr Feng-Yuan Gan, President of E Ink, and on the right, Andy Yang, GM of the Smart Retail Business Group at AUO. (Picture: E Ink)

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