dc.description.abstract | The electronic display market seems to be marching into another peak following Amazon’s release of Kindle e-book reader, which has received many favorable views, in 2007. Owing to the booming of e-book reader, the electronic paper (e-paper) application market has grown rapidly since 2008 and together with light, thin, low-energy consumption, flexible and other features, the e-paper currently is recognized as a cirtical alternative to physical paper and requires a lot of contents to support the flat panel display market in the future. DisplaySearch research estimates that the number of e-paper display modules will grow from 20 million in 2009 to 800 million in 2015. Furthermore, the value of e-paper display modules will grow from US$400 million in 2009 to US$6 billion in 2015 and close to US$10 billion in 2018.
Although e-paper has many amazing features and has been currently used in e-book readers, labels, public billboards, smart cards, mobile phone screens, the display of clothes, etc. However, the current technology development of e-paper such as full color, flexible type, refresh rate, cost and technical aspects of production has reached its bottleneck; therefore, there is a long way to go before e-paper can to a great extent replace the traditional paper products and display its full potential.
Data from DisplayBank, a research institute, shows that e-book reader (55%) and screen action/public billboards (26%) are the two with the highest percentages of applications of e-paper in 2009. It is estimated that the proportion of e-book reader will still be the highest in the e-paper application field in 2018, but the moveable screen/public billboard will grow 1.5 percent, and will gradually move toward the development of medical and portable devices. Looking at the current trend of text digitalization, analyzing the key success factors of the
e-paper industries is a very valuable research topics.
For the reasons above, a qualitative case study of the industry is conducted based on the theory of competitive analysis, value network analysis model and the innovation diffusion theory. In line with the case study method of obtaining information, the research uses secondary data and interviews to collect research data. The main issues to be addressed are “key success factors of the e-paper industry,” “business opportunities of future application and development” and other trends and potentials of the technology. By analyzing the data, the researcher gains a better understanding of the future of e-paper applications and business opportunities. In addition, the key success factors of e-paper industry are explored and suggestions are provided to the domestic panel manufacturers. This research found that the key success factors of e-paper industry are the technological breakthroughs required and the effective creation of markets.
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