Technically, the e-paper race is full of dark horses--including the sector leader itself, E-Ink, whose electrophoretic e-paper technology, used in the Kindle and countless other e-paper devices, is threatened by upstarts like Apple's iPad and forthcoming hybrid "transflective" LCD / e-paper displays from Pixel Qi.

But to declare the race for e-paper dominance over is to forget just how widespread and diverse are the uses of dead-tree paper: every one of which represents an opportunity for e-paper manufactures.

Nemoptic, which has yet to partner with a hardware maker willing to put their displays into a proper e-reader, has managed to carve out a niche for itself by following this logic, and creating an e-paper display usable in place of those little tags on the front of grocery store shelves that tell you the prices of goods.