E Ink had earlier announced that they have ambitious plans to scale up production of large-screen e-paper displays. However, as Good e-Reader stated, those plans seem to have hit a rough patch with the company now claiming their production capacity is already overstretched and that they are not able to increase capacity right away. What is hurting them all the more is that their new H5 production line is not operational yet. E Ink had earlier stated H5 would start producing e-paper panels from April, though that has been hampered due to some technical issues.
E Ink, however, has stated their current production bottleneck is only a short-term issue and that they are committed to long-term plans to produce enough large-screen color and B/W e-paper panels for both the Chinese and other international markets. It has only been last month that E Ink had earmarked 2025 as the year of large-screen e-note devices. The company said they are doing all they can to fix issues that have been preventing the H5 line from starting production. Besides, E Ink is also setting up the H6 production line, which, when operational, will ease production woes even further.
E Ink is unable to produce enough of both color and B/W large large-screen e-paper displays. This applies to both Kaleido 3 and Gallery 3 display panels. With this being the scenario, several high-profile devices could face delays in reaching the market. Those include the color versions of both the Kindle and Kobo flagship devices – the Kindle Scribe Color and the Kobo Elipsa Colour. Even hoping for a launch of either of these two devices in the fourth quarter this year might be too optimistic an estimate.
That said, mid-size to small e-paper displays continue to be available as usual. E Ink said the small to mid-size e-paper displays are being produced in enough numbers to meet current market demand. This should explain the launch of several mid-size e-readers, while more might also be in the offing. Stay tuned.