Mobile phone "falling in love" with e-paper
2022-06-06
Since 2022, electronic paper has become a "net red" in the display field. Recently, it was reported in the industry that Apple may apply electronic paper to the "secondary screen" of mobile phones and launch multi screen iPhones. Interestingly, Huawei launched its first electronic paper tablet matepad paper in March this year. Obviously, the two Chinese and American technology giants are eyeing e-paper at the same time, but the difference is that Apple may prefer small size, while Huawei is obviously more optimistic about larger size. What kind of application scenarios will electronic paper products become more and more popular in the future? Industry insiders told the reporter of China Electronics News that only when major breakthroughs are made in color and video broadcasting can e-paper display truly form killer applications and enter the mainstream application field. However, the answer is more than that The conjecture of apple "fried cold rice" As soon as the news that "Apple plans to launch a multi screen iPhone" came out, it occupied the front row of microblog hot search. But it also attracted a lot of questions: "impossible, it must be false news!" "Is apple going to take the retro route?" It is rumored in the industry that Apple will join hands with Yuantai technology, a leading electronic paper enterprise, to carry two secondary screens made of electronic paper on the back of the iPhone, which will be combined with the original front main screen to become a multi screen iPhone. If the news is true, apple is likely to take advantage of the eye protection and low power consumption advantages of electronic paper to add popularity to the iPhone. In fact, the concept of e-paper + mobile phone is not new. As early as 2013, Yota, Russia, launched the world's first e-paper dual screen mobile phone. Its e-paper screen is like an electronic photo album, which can display photos, maps and other information. Since 2017, Hisense Group in China has released a number of single screen or dual screen mobile phones with e-ink screens, such as A6, a7 and other models. But in general, these e-paper mobile phone products have not aroused too much splash in the consumption field. For apple, a technology giant that pays attention to innovation, if it launches a mobile phone equipped with an electronic paper secondary screen, it seems to be "fried cold rice", which does not meet the public's expectations for Apple's innovation. Thus, there is the above question. However, on May 17, the well-known Apple analyst guomingpei disclosed that Apple was testing electronic paper, which is expected to be applied to its folding screen mobile phones, tablet computers and other devices in the future. It can be seen that the above rumors are not groundless. Why does apple, known as the "industry vane", begin to favor electronic paper? Zhouguofu, one of the main inventors of the global electronic paper display technology and a professor of South China Normal University, told the reporter of China Electronics News that the electronic paper belongs to a reflective display, has no backlight, uses ambient light for imaging, and has the most natural "paper like" display experience. It is characterized by eye protection, low power consumption and clear viewing outdoors. "This display principle indicates that e-paper has unique advantages in the field of mobile phones or tablets." Zeng long, a senior analyst at cinno research · ePaper insight, told the reporter that compared with the common TFT-LCD and AMOLED display phones, the e-paper technology has excellent paper like characteristics and basically has no problems of LCD screen flickering and blue light. Long time reading will not produce dizziness and fatigue similar to LCD and AMOLED screens. In addition, electronic paper does not consume power when displaying static images, which meets the long-term endurance requirements of mobile terminals such as mobile phones. But at the same time, there are some technical problems in the application of electronic paper display in mobile phones. First, the slow refresh speed can not support the demand for mobile terminal dynamic display, video playback and other functions. Second, the color is not as rich and colorful as LCD and AMOLED display. Zeng long said that these two factors have greatly limited the application of ink screens in mobile phones and other mobile terminals. At present, the sales volume of dual screen e-paper mobile phones is average. Zeng long believes that there are three main reasons: first, the high cost of market education leads to low market awareness; Secondly, the current cost of electronic paper can not make it a standard choice in mobile phones; Finally, the positioning of dual screen mobile phones is not clear, and the function of e-paper screen has not been brought into full play. Although electronic paper and mobile phones have been grafted many years ago, Apple's iconic significance makes it unusual for its products to combine electronic paper. "As the secondary screen of mobile phones, the electronic paper screen may become the next product trend. It can not only bring the hot spots of creative industrial design and competitive market, but also solve the problems of frequent wake-up and power consumption from the consumer level." Dongmin, Deputy Secretary General of China Electronics and video industry association, told the reporter of China Electronics News that under the background of green and low carbon, the low power consumption characteristics of e-paper are attracting the attention of large brand enterprises. "Killer" apps are absent for a long time As early as the 1970s, the research and development of e-paper related technologies began. Over the past 50 years, although the application scope of e-paper has been continuously expanded, e-paper technology still lacks killer applications. Apart from the most impressive e-paper reader, I am afraid it is difficult to name the second familiar application. Even the electronic reading artifact Kindle, which was once popular all over the world, has been gradually fading out of the Chinese market since 2022. So, what is the root cause behind the long-term absence of e-paper killer applications? Wangyuhong, chief operating officer of Lotu technology, a technology industry research institution, told China Electronics News that as one of the new display technologies, there is still a gap between the current actual performance of electronic paper products and the well-known performance of LCD products. When electronic paper technology is used in display products, it will form a direct comparison with conventional LCD products, resulting in a large gap in user experience. "The current characteristics of electronic paper mainly lie in low power consumption and visual health, but such advantages will not be immediately apparent, and it is difficult for consumers to intuitively perceive them." Dong min further added that due to the exclusive supply chain of e-paper film materials in the early days, the competition was relatively insufficient, resulting in that the upstream and downstream industry chains were not proactive in the application and development of e-paper, and the related products failed to show obvious advantages in the application competition with LCD technology. According to the data, from the perspective of the market revenue scale in 2021, the main application markets of e-paper are currently concentrated in the three major fields of new retail E-price tags, e-paper readers and handwritten books, and now the revenue share of the new retail E-price tag application market has exceeded the latter two. The data reflect the fact that the distance between e-paper applications and consumers seems to be getting farther and farther away. However, due to the supply capacity and technological iteration of the upstream industrial chain, the creativity and development willingness of downstream brand manufacturers are also restricted to a large extent. Experts pointed out that different from the mainstream display technologies such as LCD screen and AMOLED screen, which focus on 2C application field, the characteristics of electronic paper technology determine that its product applications focus on 2B application market. "From the perspective of display technology competition pattern and market demand, the current goal of the electronic paper industry is not to seize the LCD market at all, but to replace the paper display and the market application of passive low-power products, such as electronic reading, electronic price tag, smart office, smart education, smart logistics, smart transportation and other applications. The 2B attribute is obvious." Zeng long told reporters. However, as an electronic paper technology mainly oriented to 2B application field, its market application is still affected by many factors, such as poor product technology cognition, complex and changeable business model, strong policy relevance and so on. In addition, the technical level is also an important factor affecting the emergence of e-paper "killer" applications. From a technical point of view, the electronic paper products on the market (including electronic nameplate, Internet of things logo, electronic information price tag, etc.) are based on the principle of electrophoretic electronic paper. In 2004, the world's first e-ink screen reader released by Sony applied this technology, which promoted the successful commercialization of e-paper technology for the first time in the history. Zhouguofu pointed out that the principle that electrophoretic electronic paper controls the movement of particles by applying the polarity and intensity of the electric field determines that it has congenital deficiencies in color and video, and can only be limited to the application range of low refresh rate and narrow color gamut. At present, commercial electrophoretic electronic paper display products are often criticized by consumers as "reading enough words, reading pictures reluctantly, and watching videos powerless". "Only when electronic paper display products make major breakthroughs in color and video playback can they truly reflect the advantages of electronic paper as a reflective display - both 'paper like' health viewing attribute and strong interaction of electronic screen, so as to make high-quality health eye care display products enter the mainstream application field." Zhouguofu told China Electronics News. More potential in enterprise market At present, the development of e-paper industry ecological chain and scenario application are in a critical period to meet the full outbreak. According to ePaper insight statistics, in 2021, the global electronic paper machine shipment reached about 180million sets (pieces). In the past five years, the average annual compound growth rate of the shipment volume of the electronic paper industry has reached more than 40%. It is estimated that in 2022, the market size of the global electronic paper industry will exceed US $6.5 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 65%, and will continue to maintain a high-speed growth trend. Perhaps, for technology giants such as apple and Huawei, e-paper has high potential value. The earlier the layout, the more likely it will get more dividends when the industry erupts. But the core question is, in many application fields, where can we start to get the "killer mace" of the broken electronic paper market? Apple is committed to carbon reduction and promises to achieve carbon neutrality in the supply chain and product life cycle by 2030. Therefore, it is reasonable to launch e-paper as the secondary screen of its flagship product iPhone. However, in Wangyuhong's view, the main direction of electronic paper should be more oriented towards the market positioning of "paperless", rather than new electronic display products. "From the current technical level and product characteristics of e-paper, the application in 2C field is not to replace LCD or AMOLED display technology, but has more auxiliary application functions as both." Zeng long said that the electronic paper industry is constantly trying to create a new industrial ecology in many 2B fields, and has great market potential in fields such as smart education and smart logistics. At present, e-paper is mainly used in commercial products such as electronic labels and advertising signs at the b-end. In the consumer category, e-paper flat is one of the important segmentation scenarios. Huawei positions its e-paper tablet as a smart office product, which can realize cross device interconnection because it is equipped with harmonyos2.0 Hongmeng system. Lotu technology analysis points out that Huawei is likely to improve the interactive experience of e-paper tablets by virtue of the integration and innovation of its chip, Hongmeng system, touch pen and other mature technologies in multiple dimensions, so as to promote the public's understanding of e-paper tablets, and finally further drive the resource investment of upstream and downstream supply chains, so as to boost the overall market capacity with excellent products and full competition. Zhouguofu told the reporter that reflective electronic paper, as a unique "eye protection" display technology, is especially suitable for high frame rate dynamic color display scenes (smart education, online office terminals) with strong demand for health eye protection, as well as energy-saving and environmental friendly smart city electronic information screens, wearable devices, etc., which form a strong relationship with the transmissive liquid crystal display and emission organic light-emitting display in the current display technology layout
Edit：Li Jialang Responsible editor：Mu Mu
Source：epaper1.cena.com.cn
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