Samsung has announced that they will no longer be present in the e-paper panel production industry, citing reasons such as “cost issues” alongside having a dim view of e-paper’s future. Of course, one can never predict anything correctly (even Paul the Octopus got it wrong before), but it is interesting to see a global giant like Samsung actually heading away from the e-paper future instead of leading the way. This will not be the end of Samsung’s participation in the e-book reader market though, as they will release a new model next year that, to nobody’s surprise, will eschew e-paper in favor of an LCD display instead. Part of their pessimism might be the poor sales from their e-book readers launched to date. We think that there is a market for e-paper panels, and it is the responsibilities of companies to grow that niche and make it happen.