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January 2002 Issue Summary
Welcome to 2002, which we believe will be much better
than 2001.
Last year saw a major slowing in the projection industry growth rates,
delays in HDTV products and a melt-down in the near-to-eye microdisplay
industry.
But despite these problems, we remain optimistic for 2002 as there continues
to be a lot of activity that should bear fruit soon - especially in
projection.
We will know a lot more in a few weeks after the upcoming Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas.
We have completed the January issue of the Microdisplay Report, in this
issue we document the troubles at eMagin and Zight. Despite having customers
wanting eMagin's OLED-on-silicon microdisplays, the company has had
difficulty raising money to fund its production ramp. Efforts are on-going,
but staff has now been reduced and all options are on the table.
The plight of Zight is not so rosy as this pillar of the near-to-eye
microdisplay community has now closed its doors and will auction off
its microdisplay inventory, while trying to continue to license its
IP.
There are other problems in the industry, but progress continues. For
example, there is a new LCOS display supplier, eLCOS Microdisplay Technologies,
which is readying two panels for projection applications.
JVC is shipping its latest 0.72-inch SXGA+ panel and Kopin has received
a contract to develop a color SXGA panel. Meanwhile, Displaytech and
Texas Instruments have both reached 1 million display milestones and
Kopin is in position to deliver its three millionth CyberDisplay.
In fact, in our newly-completed 61-page company profile on Kopin, we
cover how the company could benefit from some of the recent turmoil
in the microdisplay industry (see www.mdreport.com for more on this
independently-researched report).
Projection light engine activity continues at an unrelenting pace. InFocus
is working with China-based SVA to supply DLP-based engines for rear-projection
TVs, SpatiaLight has signed up it's third major Chinese electronics
company for LCOS-based TV sets, and Aurora Systems has a deal with China
Display for LCOS TVs too.
Near-to-eye products continue to roll out nonetheless as we have info
on new headsets from Personal Display Systems, eMagin, Liteye Systems,
Cybermind UK, Microvision and others.
There is also coverage of the latest news in wearable computers and
our usual wrap-up of recent market forecast reports financial condition
of industry participants.
Coming in February will be coverage of CES and our next installment
of the Projection Industry Report. This will have full company-by-company
coverage from the last 5 months on microdisplays, lamps, optical components,
screens & films, and engines and projection systems.
We have also decided to move the Projection Industry Summit Conference
(PISC) 2002 from March to June 10-11. It will now be held in the two
days prior to Infocomm in Las Vegas. We will have much more on this
soon.
Over the next few months, we will be rolling out an updated web site
and several more market forecast products. There will even be opportunities
for paid advertising on the new site so you can reach our very targeted
customer based very efficiently.
Stay tuned as we plan to make 2002 a banner year for Insight Media and
it customers.
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