We're a bit heavy-hearted to report the news, but it appears that recent e-paper sales aren't as rosy as
some analysts and
industry insiders like us to believe (while
others are a bit more conservative). Details are sketchy at this point, but Digitimes
reports that last month, PVI has suffered from a drop in revenues by more than thirty percent, which is at least partly caused by "weakened e-paper orders from the US." Meanwhile a display competitor confirmed that "the weak economy is expected to continue, dampening demand in the US market."
So what does this exactly mean? Granted, e-book readers are not exactly low-budget, but is it possible that the current economic downtrend has already a negative impact on e-book reader sales? Is it a coincidence that just two weeks ago, Amazon
dropped the price of its Kindle reader?