Ubiquity or obsolescence: how is E Ink's success story going to end?

Looking back at last year, it looks like 2012 was a tipping point for the e-reader market. Kindles and the likes were overshadowed by new models of tablet computers, resulting in a shift in consumer spending towards the tablets. But e-readers are still hugely popular, not least because of their long battery life and their low price. Since the holiday season, the must-have new feature has been the frontlight that enables reading in the dark, such as in the new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. But take a closer look at this new generation of e-readers and you will find something striking: all of them use the same E Ink Pearl display, a technology that was released more than two years ago.