E Ink and AUO Enter into Strategic Partnership to Develop Large-Size Color ePaper Displays

This collaboration focuses on advancing the companies’ offerings in smart retail solutions via low-power and energy-efficient display technology

Today, AUO (2409.TW), a global leader in display and smart application solutions, announced a strategic partnership and memorandum of understanding with E Ink, a global commercial leader in ePaper technology, 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.

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.

“E Ink has been dedicated to the development of ePaper technology and applications, with years of research efforts that have redefined industries like retail,” said Dr. FY Gan, President of E Ink. “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.”

“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 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.”

AUO is dedicated to providing solutions for sustainable transformation. At this year’s Touch Taiwan exhibition, 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.