For centuries, the physical shape of a book remained remarkably stable: a cover, a spine and a sequence of pages designed to be read in order.
The arrival of digital reading changed how books were distributed, but the metaphor largely survived. A digital book still had a cover. Readers still turned virtual pages. Early e-readers were built to reproduce the experience as faithfully—and as quietly—as possible.
BOOX started with a different question: What else could a book become?
A book could contain an entire library, but it could also become a notebook, a document workspace, a search engine or a window into cloud-based information. It could preserve the low-glare, distraction-resistant qualities of paper while gaining some of the flexibility of a computer.
That idea has guided Onyx International, the Guangzhou company behind BOOX, for nearly two decades. It has also led the company into an unusual position between several established categories. BOOX makes e-readers, but increasingly describes its products as productivity tools. It sells hardware, but considers its operating system a central asset. It is based in China, while more than half of its revenue comes from overseas.
On September 23, Onyx submitted a new application for a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after an earlier filing expired. The proposed IPO offers a closer look at a Chinese consumer electronics company that has quietly built a global following by repeatedly expanding the meaning of its own name.
BOOX is pronounced “books.” The spelling suggests that something familiar has been altered—slightly, but deliberately.
A Book That Does More
Opening a BOOX product does not necessarily lead to a bookstore.
Depending on the model, the device might contain a collection of EPUB files, a stack of research papers, handwritten meeting notes or applications downloaded through Android. A user can read a book, annotate a PDF, search a document, record an idea and synchronize the result with another device.
The experience is still organized around text, but the book is no longer treated as a finished object. It becomes part of an ongoing process of reading, writing and managing information.
This distinction matters because Onyx never owned a global publishing and content platform. It could not build its business by directing customers into a proprietary bookstore. Instead, it made compatibility itself a product feature.
An open system allowed BOOX users to bring their own books, documents, applications and services. Rather than deciding where information should come from, Onyx concentrated on making different forms of information usable on an electronic-paper display.
That sounds straightforward today. When the company began, it was anything but.
From Reader to Operating System
Onyx was established in Guangzhou in 2008. The following year, it introduced the A60, its first six-inch electronic reader with electromagnetic handwriting support.
The earliest BOOX devices ran on Linux. They established the company’s reputation for reading PDFs and supporting multiple document formats, but their functions remained relatively bounded.
In 2011, Onyx began moving toward Android. Its first Android-based reader, the C65, followed in 2013. According to the company’s official history, it then spent years adapting newer versions of Android to electronic-paper hardware.
The difficulty came from the screen itself.
Electronic paper is excellent at holding a static image while using very little power. It is far less naturally suited to the constant movement expected from a modern operating system. Scrolling, animation and rapidly changing interfaces can produce delays, flashing and visual residue.
Onyx therefore had to develop software that controlled how individual applications behaved on an E Ink display. BOOX OS adjusts refresh modes, contrast, color and image clarity according to what appears on the screen. The objective is not simply to run Android, but to translate Android into a visual medium with fundamentally different properties.
That work gradually changed the nature of the company. Onyx was no longer only designing electronic readers. It was building a software layer between conventional applications and electronic paper.
Its hardware remained the visible product, but BOOX OS became the system that held the product family together.
Expanding the Shape of a Book
Once BOOX could support a broader operating system, the physical definition of the product began to expand as well.
In 2016, Onyx introduced the 13.3-inch Max, bringing electronic paper closer to the size of a full document page. The Max2 added handwriting capabilities the following year. In 2018, the Note series combined a 10.3-inch display with pressure-sensitive writing.
The company subsequently moved into thinner digital notebooks, large-format monitors and color devices. In 2021, the Mira series extended electronic paper into external computer displays. The Nova Air C brought color to a smaller reading and writing device in 2022.
Then came the Palma in 2023. With a narrow, phone-like body and a 6.13-inch display, it placed electronic paper in a shape normally associated with constant connectivity. It looked like a smartphone, but its primary attraction was precisely that it did not behave like one.
These products were not simply variations in screen size. Each expanded the situations in which Onyx believed an electronic-paper device could be useful.
The company now divides its principal hardware into two broad categories. Its high-speed readers are designed primarily for reading and lightweight interaction. Its productivity tablets emphasize handwriting, document processing and multiple forms of input. Other products include monitors, accessories, software and content-related services.
The resulting portfolio stretches from pocket-sized readers to 25.3-inch displays. A BOOX product can resemble a book, a notebook, a tablet, a monitor or something between them.
This breadth has helped Onyx find users beyond the conventional e-book market. It has also made the company increasingly dependent on its ability to launch new products, manage numerous models and explain why each one needs to exist.
A Chinese Brand With a Global Readership
BOOX’s international presence is not a recent addition made for an IPO narrative. Overseas users have long been central to the business.
Markets outside China generated 56.2% of Onyx’s revenue in 2023, 59.4% in 2024 and 59.1% in 2025. The proportion declined to 54.6% in the first half of 2026 but remained a majority. The United States generally contributed between 17% and 19% of total revenue, while Europe accounted for approximately 20% to 24%.
The company sells through its own websites, major ecommerce platforms and local distributors. Its products have reached more than 100 countries and regions.
BOOX OS had more than 1.2 million monthly active users as of June 30, 2026, according to the company’s latest application materials. Its StarNote reading and writing application had accumulated approximately two million downloads.
Research from Frost & Sullivan commissioned for the filing ranked BOOX as China’s largest and the world’s second-largest “knowledge-focused productivity tools” brand by retail value in 2025. Onyx held an estimated 4.2% of the global market, compared with 13.1% for the largest participant.
The category name may be unfamiliar outside an investment document. It refers broadly to devices used for sustained reading, handwriting, note-taking and other forms of text-intensive work. Onyx places BOOX within that category because it wants the company to be valued as more than a manufacturer of e-book readers.
The numbers support part of that argument. BOOX has developed a recognizable international brand and a growing body of software users. But its relatively modest global share also shows that it operates in a fragmented market whose boundaries are still being drawn.
The Difficult Business Behind Better Books
Onyx has been profitable, but its recent financial results reveal the pressure behind its product expansion.
Revenue rose from RMB803.6 million in 2023 to RMB1.02 billion in 2024 and RMB1.13 billion in 2025. Profit remained relatively stable at RMB124.1 million, RMB121.2 million and RMB130.7 million, respectively.
In the first half of 2026, revenue increased 7.4% year on year to RMB573.6 million. Net profit, however, fell by approximately 24% to RMB53.3 million. The company’s net margin declined to 9.3%.
The composition of that growth is more revealing than the headline figure.
Revenue from high-speed readers fell 52.8% during the period as unit sales dropped 42.8%. Productivity-tablet revenue increased 32%, but the average selling price declined from RMB2,398 to RMB1,869 as smaller and less expensive models made up a larger portion of sales. The category’s gross margin also fell.
Together, Onyx’s two main hardware businesses recorded a 4.7% decline in sales.
Overall revenue still grew partly because the company generated RMB55.7 million by reselling chips manufactured by third parties. That activity accounted for almost 10% of first-half revenue. It helped Onyx turn components accumulated during a volatile supply environment into cash, but it is not a natural source of long-term growth for the BOOX brand.
Inventory also rose sharply—from RMB499.1 million at the end of 2025 to RMB748.8 million at the end of June 2026. Inventory turnover reached 313 days. Onyx said it had purchased screens and chips in advance to protect itself from fluctuating prices and long delivery cycles.
Such caution reflects the structure of the electronic-paper industry. Taiwan’s E Ink Holdings dominates the supply of electronic-ink materials and is both an important Onyx supplier and a shareholder in the company.
Advance purchasing can protect production when components are scarce. It can also tie up cash and expose a hardware company to changing demand, falling component prices and short product cycles.
Onyx therefore arrives at the public market with a real business, recognizable products and positive earnings—but also with questions about how quickly its core hardware operations can grow.
The Next Chapter
The proposed IPO is intended to support research and development, supply-chain improvements, international marketing and the continued expansion of Onyx’s software and services.
AI is becoming part of that strategy. BOOX is adding functions such as document summarization, handwriting recognition, search and information organization. Cloud services and StarNote may allow the company to maintain a relationship with users beyond the moment they purchase a device.
For now, however, hardware remains the main route through which Onyx acquires users and generates revenue.
Newly introduced products contributed 36.9% of revenue in 2023, 26.3% in 2024 and 33.2% in 2025. In the first half of 2026, that proportion dropped to 10.5%. The figures illustrate both the importance and the difficulty of Onyx’s product cycle: the company must keep inventing new shapes for the book, even though customers may not replace an electronic-paper device as frequently as a phone or computer.
Moving further into software could make the business more durable. It could also complicate the quality that brought many users to electronic paper in the first place.
BOOX products promise a form of technology that demands less attention, not more. Every additional feature, application and AI service must therefore justify its presence without turning the device into another source of digital noise.
That balance has defined the company from the beginning.
Onyx started by putting handwriting on an electronic reader. It then brought Android to electronic paper, expanded the screen into a notebook and monitor, and compressed it into something that could fit into a pocket. Each step asked the same underlying question: how much more could a book do without ceasing to feel like a book?
BOOX has already rewritten the object. Its Hong Kong IPO will test whether it can now rewrite the economics around it.
