Bridgestone Exits E-Paper Business Entirely

This week the folks at Bridgestone have made it clear that they and their AeroBee technology will be out of the e-paper business inside the year. This news comes at a time when tablets appear very much to be dominating the market while e-readers in general are moving toward a more colorful future. Bridgestone will instead be focusing on its "core business" to provide "maximum value" to its shareholders as well as its customers for the near future.

Bridgestone reminds the world that at this moment in history, there is a decline in prices on liquid crystal panels and an increase in competition across the board. Bridgestone will be exiting the electronic paper market starting immediately and plans at the moment to be out entirely by October of 2012. Bridgestone is better known for their tire and rubber company exploits, with their dip into the electronics market being best recognized as large panel e-ink panels as shown here:

The video you see above comes from Aihabara News where they filmed video in Tokyo in April of last year. It's a sad day when any company decides that they'll have to exit a business, especially here in the technology world where such awesome products must head to the dumpster. The 40-inch draw-ready panels you see in the video above may well be picked up by a different manufacturer, of course – we'll just have to wait and see!

[via Bridgestone]