CEATEC and SID Mobile Display Conference Provide Mobile Display News

The October edition of Mobile Display Report (MDR) shipped last week with 73 pages of some pretty meaty info. Featured in this issue was coverage of the SID Mobile Display conference, small display news from CEATEC as well as other industry news on technology, products, markets and business.

Starting with microdisplays, ferroelectric LCOS panel maker Forth Dimension Display reports that their new strategic direction is starting to pay off. The company turned away from doing RPTVs to focus on high-end viewfinders and is doing well. It is now at a breakeven point and will be profitable by the end of year. Meanwhile, Rohm has been quietly developing its OLED-based electronic viewfinder technology and showed the latest version at CEATEC.

These displays power personal displays and electronic viewfinders for cameras and camcorders, But suppliers in this space have also shown interest in trying to leverage this technology to create pico-projectors. Toward that end, we also saw Konica's new two-directional scanning mirror based on MEMs technology that is aimed at the pico-projectors. The demo offered XGA resolution with an RGB laser module.

At the SID Mobile Display conference, we saw several more pico projectors, including the newest one from Texas Instruments. The demo we saw produced a pretty good, unspeckled image, but pixels were evident if the image was much bigger than a piece of paper. This pico-projector was also small, suggesting TI may have a much smaller device and a different package to support this form factor.

We also saw demos of field-sequential single-panel demos using transmissive LCD technology (Explay) and reflective LCOS technology (Syndiant). We especially liked the potential the Syndiant demo suggested, but they are not as close to commercialization as Explay. Meanwhile, Microvision was in San Diego and Japan showing off their two-axis scanning projector. They recently announced a new agreement with an unnamed Asian customer.

The SID Mobile Display conference also offered updates on trends in LCD and OLEDs - as well as some very interesting new innovations. What were the key trends we spotted? Thinner displays, lower power consumption, higher brightness, increasing resolution, bigger screen sizes, wider color gamuts and the continuing move from STN panels to AMLCDs. These trends come as no surprise, but there were some interesting statistics and advancements in the mix that helped round out our coverage.

The attention in OLEDs was on the active matrix variety, of course. Most of what we heard was not particularly new, but we managed to get a good summation of the state of the industry out of the papers and presentations.

More attention was focused on touch screens as the impact of the Apple iPhone and its repercussions were widely discussed. This looks like an unstoppable trend with players moving quickly to add touch screens to handsets. Some will opt for the projected capacitive type while some will choose resistive screens. How fast each of these will penetrate the market is a matter of some debate.

DisplaySearch and iSuppli presented a host of market numbers for the small- to medium-sized display market. Both see continuing growth to exactly the same point by 2011 - 1.85 to 1.9B units.

While iSuppli and DisplaySearch agree on the unit growth, the two differ considerably on the impact to revenue. iSuppli, for example, sees revenue peaking in 2008 and 2009, then declining to about $13.5B by 2011. DisplaySearch sees revenue declining from a peak of nearly $14B in 2005 to a low of perhaps $12.5B in 2007, then climbing upward to again reach about $14B by 2011. In DisplaySearch's view, revenues decline this year by 7%, but then become positive - albeit at small single-digit growth rates.

Another differing point of view: iSuppli sees panel makers facing price and margin pressures, and as a result, mergers and acquisitions will occur among display suppliers. DisplaySearch sees no consolidation coming.

There were also a lot of interesting updates from alternative display developers like Uni-Pixel, Qualcomm MEMS Technology, Liquivista and others. The table of contents for the edition is shown below.

For complete coverage of the month's news, along with commentary and analysis from our team of display experts, consider subscribing to Mobile Display Report .

If you want to read the current issue, you can order it here for $100, or receive an older edition for free for your evaluation.

Until next time...

Chris Chinnock
President, Insight Media

Mobile Display Report

October 2007

Microdisplays 3

4DD Turns the Corner 3

Rohm's Viewfinder OLED Display 4

LED/Laser Devices and Components 5

Nichia Settles One - Then Files Another Patent Dispute 5

Shootout at the LED Corral 5

Toshiba Bows 30 Lm Surface-Mount White LED 6

Battery Technology 7

Toshiba Shows Portable Fuel Cell Technology 7

Electronics 8

TI Touts Phone Chip Advances 8

NXP, Ceva Form IP alliance 9

Xilinx Bows DSP Dev. Kit 10

Touch Screens 10

Sharp Shows Optical Touch Display 10

Touch Screens Focus of Mobile Display Conference 11

Mobile LCD Displays 13

Trends in Mobile LCD Displays 13

    Thinner Displays 13

    Power Consumption 13

    Brightness 14

    Resolution 16

    Panel Technology 17

    Screen Size 18

    Color Gamut 18

    Summary 19

TMD Shows High Contrast LCD 19

Hitachi's 5-inch WXGA Display for IPTV 20

Kyocera Bows New 7.5-inch LED BLU LCD 20

OLEDs 21

Advancements in AMOLED 21

TMD Shows 2.8" AMOLED 23

OLED Related Investments are in the News 24

Vitex Boosts IP w/Six New Patents 25

OSD's 2-inch AMOLED in Mass Production 26

Alternative Displays 26

Sony's Gen 2 E-Reader Uses New E-Ink Film 26

SiPix's E-paper Display in Handset 28

Fujitsu Color E-Paper 29

Uni-Pixel Update 30

QMT Offers New Display Metrics 31

Liquivista Moving Toward Production 32

3D Displays 33

3M Describes 3D Displays - Sort of 33

Head Mounted Personal Displays 34

Konica Holographic Glasses 34

Headplay Launches Personal Cinema System 34

Mobile Products 35

Prospects for UMPCs 35

Fujitsu Rolls Out Palm-Sized Touch Screen PC 36

Nokia Releases 6301 UMA Convergence Phone 37

PNDs Makers Consider Mobile TV Support 37

Samsung Concept Camera 38

Toshiba Introduces Digital Photo Frame 38

Personal Display Watch 39

Future Displays for the Mobile Web 39

Pico/Nano Projectors 40

ExPlay Shows Pico Projector - Again 40

Konica Minolta Opto Bi-Axial MEMS 41

Microvision's Laser Projector Technology 42

Laser Projector Demos at Mobile Display Conference 43

    TI Shows G2 Device; Announces Partners 43

    PicoP Focuses on Small 45

    Top Ten Challenges for Mobile Projection 46

    Light Blue Optics 47

    Defining Mobile Projectors 47

    Syndiant Shows Demo 48

Market Intelligence 49

S/M Supply and Profits in Doubt 49

    Supply Constraints Coming 49

    Prospects for Profits 50

4Q Handset Shortage to Impact US Market 51

ABI Says Mobile Broadband Enables CE Devices 52

Gartner: EU Nixes TV on Cell Phone Screens 53

TPO to Lead Small to Med-Size LCD Panel Market 54

Prices to Remain Flat on 7-inch LCD Panels 55

Telecom Giants Report Varying 2Q Results 55

Business and Strategic 56

Apple Partners with O2 for iPhone's UK Launch 56

iPod Nano Teardown 57

Asahi Glass and Mitsubishi to Sell Optrex 58

ASE and NXP in China JV 58

CMO and TPV to Form Strategic Alliance 59

DSC Displays to Keep 2.8- to 3-inch Screens 59

Hitachi to Hike Small LCD Output 59

HP Secures Handset License from China Government 60

Lite-On Announces Plan to Acquire Perlos 60

Samsung, Armani to Build TVs and Mobile Phones 61

Sony to Gain Control of Both JVs with Toyota 61

Mobile Video Content 62

ESPN Mobile TV to Offer Football 62

Japan Orders via Cell Phone Up Sharply 62

Mobile Video Infrastructure 63

Aloha Sells 700MHz Spectrum To AT&T 63

Can the Ubiquitous Network be Far Off? 63

Cell Phones at Home and the Expansion of Mobile TV 65

WiMax in the News 66

Mobile Regulatory / Standards 67

Mobile TV in China Get's an "F" 67

Insight Media News 69

Insight Media Releases "Professional Video Monitors" Report 69

Opportunities in 3D 70

Newsletter Editorial Matrix 72

About Mobile Display Report 73

About Insight Media 73

About Insight Media

Insight Media (www.insightmedia.info) is a leading publishing and consulting firm focused on the display industry. With its core team of world-class display experts, Insight Media tracks the technology, components, products, markets, applications, manufacturing and business aspects of consumer and professional display markets. The company publishes daily and monthly news and analysis as well as in-depth annual technology/market reports. It also hosts industry conferences, provides strategic and tactical consulting services and offers industry education via webinars and on-site seminars.

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