Colour e-paper has finally hit its stride. After years of smaller companies adopting this technology in e-readers and e-notebooks, Rakuten Kobo was the most prominent brand to go all in earlier this year. Will Amazon and Barnes and Noble finally adopt colour e-paper in 2025? Is the future of digital reading colour e-paper?

It was a novelty when the original Amazon Kindle came out in 2007. Nobody could expect this handheld reading device to disrupt the entire traditional publishing industry. Within a few years, Barnes and Noble, Rakuten Kobo, and other players entered the arena. In the first ten years, e-readers primarily used black-and-white e-paper displays. A few outliers experimented with colour e-paper, but adoption was poor, and sales were abysmal.

In 2024, a few players have used colour e-paper for several years. Pocketbook is one of the most well-known, along with Onyx Boox. Additionally, smaller regional players, primarily based in China and Taiwan, cater exclusively to those markets. Traditional news media and online tech blogs never paid attention to colour e-papers until Rakuten Kobo released the Kobo Clara Colour and Kobo Libra Colour. The reception for these new Kobo devices has been great. However, the company stated there is room in their portfolio for both black and white e-paper and colour for the foreseeable future.

Will Amazon release a colour Kindle? Ming-Chi Kuo of Tianfeng International Securities stated that at least two new colour Kindle devices will launch in 2025. He predicts that new e-readers will be between 7 and 10 inches and will not feature the Kaleido 3 displays used in most of the latest colour e-readers. Instead, they will use Advanced Color ePaper (ACeP) technology from E Ink.

Barnes and Noble’s plans are unclear. They have consistently released black-and-white e-readers and have not disclosed their plans. If Amazon were to release a colour Kindle, they would likely follow suit since Amazon is their most significant competitor in the United States.