Technologies used to project images have been relentlessly miniaturized over the past decade. As a result many companies are now actively looking into embedding these pico projectors into an ever-expanding range of consumer products, from cellphones to mobile TV, according to In-Stat. Forecast shipment growth of CE devices with embedded pico projector modules will increase to 2.3 billion devices by 2014, with mobile handsets share of that market moving from its current level of 15% to over 90% by 2014.
“Although the integration of ‘pico’ projectors will occur across the entire CE device spectrum, the biggest push will come from the mobile handset segment,” says Frank Dickson, VP Mobile Internet Research. “The reality is that the mobile handset market is measured in billions, creating massive opportunities for component manufactures. For pico projectors, what makes it even more attractive is that the market is hypercompetitive, with manufacturers always aggressively looking to add new features to create differentiation.”
Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
- While stand-alone/accessory pico projectors (which plug into a device, such as a cell phone, iPod or laptop) dominate the market, there is clear movement from “plug-in” to “embedded.” Standalone/accessory projectors market share will decline from roughly 37% in 2010 to less than 4% over the five year forecast period.
- While the number of personal consumer electronics leveraging pico projection will most certainly increase over the next five years, its overall share will reduce due to the size of the mobile handset market.
- The number of companies developing pico projectors for integration and/or as standalone products continues to expand, with 18 vendors now claiming to have the best technological solution including; 3M, ADM (aka Explay), bTendo, Digislide, Display Photonics Systems, Himax, Lite Blue Optics, Lite-On Technology, Maradin Technologies, Mezmeriz, Micron Displaytech, Microvision, Mirrorcle Technologies, Mitsumi Electric, Nippon Signal, Opus Microsystems, Syndiant, and Texas Instruments.
