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Originally Posted by Kumabjorn
This 
I think there is a good possibility that Amazon has guranteed that they take 100 % of the output for a year provided eInk doesn't go public untill post Sep 6. This will give eInk plenty of time to adjust and fine tune production and face out Pearl screens quietly. |
They may even have helped fund the new manufacturing facility/process. It makes sense on both ends since Amazon eats up as much as 70-80% of eink's film capacity.
I wouldn't expect Pearl to be phased out soon, though; there are still vendors introducing *new* Vizplex products.
In the semiconductor industry it is common for "obsolete" facilities that have been superceded by newer manufacturing processes to be repurposed for cheaper, less tech-intensive products; old CPU facilities get turned into micro-controller facilities, etc. And since eink displays have other, non-consumer uses, they might just repurpose the Pearl capacity. The main problem is the difference in volume between Amazon's business and all the other eink uses.