This St. Patty's day issue of Mobile Display Report (MDR) marks the beginning of a new type of coverage we call "Case Studies." The goal is to chronicle companies and individuals in the display industry and show the struggles, successes, overcoming adversity, and the lessons learned in the journey. We start this series with a look at Clairvoyant and their PenTile RGBW display technology.
The company has been around since the late 90's with a remarkable display technology most analysts thought would take the industry by storm. For all its benefits, and the list is lengthy, the company only now is at a point of OEM adoption and ODM build with a "brand name" partner. The case study and Q &A with CEO Joel Pollack that follows track this process and identify some key issues faced in gaining successful design wins and licensing IP.
Pollack provides a remarkably candid look at what can happen to small companies as they try to commercialize technology in the display industry. For example, Pollack states in the Q&A that, "Even a good technology takes far more convincing than one would logically expect." Pollack continues: "It is not enough to convince display engineering or even procurement. One must convince the program managers and perhaps even their customers before one can get over the initial hurdles." This story is a great read.
In a bit of a mini-case study, we report on a detailed conversation with Lexar's Jarreth Solomon, director of technology development, who explains why they chose the E Ink display for their wildly popular USB flash drive with "fuel-gage" like display. The remarkable properties of E ink won the day including its survivability through both wash and dry cycles, pen pokes, and even 85-degree C bakes.
Another type of news story we try to bring to you in Mobile Display Report is the "discovery" piece. In these we try to bring a new technology, product or opportunity to reader's attention.
For example, analyst Ken Werner writes about a new display technology from UniPixel that we would guess few of our subscribers have heard about yet. The company has developed a Field Sequential Color flat panel display that features LED illumination and a low-cost roll-to-roll manufacturing process. Development is still in the early stages, but the concept is fascinating.
Also in this category is a new type of 3D display that uses two LCD panels to create a stereoscopic image. These panels are placed one in back of the other with the forward panel used to separate the left and right eye images. This approach offers some of the best 3D images we have seen. Manufacturing deals are now in place with CMO to make the panels, so expect monitors to reach market this year with a modest premium over their 2D counterparts.
|
Mobile Display Report
This monthly subscription newsletter focuses on the entire food chain for monitor and smaller-sized displays. The newsletter is designed to help display professionals:
- Track technology, markets, manufacturing and supply chain developments
- Provide market and competitive / business intelligence
- Identify trends
- Research issues via our searchable news archive
Editorials are organized into several types of stories:
- Deep dives into a technology, market, application or business
- Educational case studies
- News with commentary and analysis
- Trend analysis
Ares of coverage include:
- Microdisplays
- LCD Displays
- LCD Backlights
- Alternative Displays
- OLEDs
- LED/Laser Devices
- Electronics
- Wireless
- Market Intelligence
- Mobile Video
- Mobile Products
- Laser/LED Projection
- 3D Displays
- Digital Picture Frames
- Business & Strategic
- Insight Media News
|
In this issue we also report on a trend we spotted in the
handheld market where "funds settlement" (e-money) is looking to break out of its traditional markets in Japan and Europe and go global. Two stories approach this topic, first from the component chip and wireless standards level that includes coverage of the recent NXP / Sony link up and a proposed standard by the NFC (near field communications) association.
The second story details a review of the business side of funds settlement in both Japan and Europe with a market analysis of how well the technology is doing, including forecasts from several analysts firms. We also include a look at some new applications like the recent McDonalds/NTT DoCoMo deal and new ad-based content we can expect to see delivered to the cell phones as a result.
In other news articles, we try to address some of these questions:
- Can small microdisplay companies survive?
- Are notebooks the next frontier for LED backlights?
- Is CMO Staying in AMOLEDs?
- Etc.
And there's more as this month's Mobile Display Report includes over 70 pages of rich content.
Click here to see full Table of Contents
Click here to subscribe to Mobile Display Report |
