Although e-paper books have been popular for quite some time, they are still considered by most to be a niche hardware category. Huawei's MatePad Paper released last month brought the electronic paper tablet to the public almost single-handedly. This product, which needs to be booked on JD.com, is beginning to be paid more attention to.
According to the definition of RUNTO, large-size electronic paper tablet refers to smart devices that use 6 to 13.3-inch electronic paper screens, including readers, office books, smart workbooks and other products. According to runto online data, in the first quarter of 2022, the sales volume of China's electronic paper and tablet online market reached 159,000 units, with sales of more than 290 million yuan and an average unit price of 1823 yuan.
In terms of brand pattern, Amazon's Kindle has led the way for many years, followed by domestic brands such as Wenshi, Palm Reading, and iFLYTEK, with the market share of the top three exceeding 66% of the online market, and the concentration is quite high.
Q1 2022 China electronic paper flat panel online market brand sales
Data source: LOTTO Technology (RUNTO) online data, unit: thousand units
Domestic brands are gaining recognition from market users through product innovation and rich functions. In the first quarter of this year, especially represented by Huawei's MatePad Paper 10.3-inch office book, Aragonite Nova Air C full-color OnCell technology and other electronic paper tablets, enriched the domestic product line at the same time, greatly improved the quality of the category.
From the perspective of the average unit price of sales, 5199 yuan of Taishang Technology, 4766 yuan of iFLYTEK and 4467 yuan of Bigme ranked in the first camp, followed by 3030 yuan of Huawei, 2891 yuan of Xiao Ape and 2722 yuan of Wenshi in the second camp, hanwang's 2167 yuan and PocketBook's 2141 yuan in the third camp. The average transaction price of the remaining brands covers between 900-1500, of which the Kindle is at the lower end of the 1000 yuan price.
In terms of sales, Aragonite has an average price advantage of more than 2 times the Kindle and a number of models on sale of up to 14 models, and the combination of factors has become the first place in sales performance.
Q1 2022 China electronic paper flat panel online market brand sales
Data source: LOTTO technology (RUNTO) online data, unit: 10,000 yuan
At the product index level, the battery capacity below 2000mAh still accounts for the majority, and more than half of the products are not equipped with new features such as fingerprint recognition, intelligent systems and stylus; 97% of sales are still using black and white electronic paper screens. It is worth noting that the Type-C interface is gradually becoming popular, reaching a high penetration rate of 70%.
Q1 2022 China electronic paper flat panel online market product penetration rate
Source: RUNTO Online Data, Unit: %
Overall, the current electronic paper and tablet industry is still in the early stage of development, first of all, the recognition and recognition of categories still need time, and secondly, the performance and function of products also need to be polished and iterated, in the evolution of categories and products, the brand pattern will face a more direct and rapid reshuffle than other consumer electronics categories.
Nevertheless, Li Yueheng, an analyst at LOTTO Technology (RUNTO), said at the "First China Electronic Paper Industry Research Quarterly Conference (CEPC)" that the main application of electronic paper will still focus on electronic paper labels in terms of sales for a period of time, but from the perspective of sales area, electronic paper tablets will become the most promising electronic paper terminals in the next three to five years.
With the continuous development and maturity of color electronic paper modules and chip ICs, the functionality of electronic paper tablet products based on android system has been no less than that of ordinary LCD flat panels, and at the same time has the unique advantages of energy saving and eye protection of electronic paper and ink screens. RUNTO expects global shipments of electronic paper tablets to exceed 15 million units in 2022, with a growth rate of more than 15%.