Microvision recently announced a number of pieces of news at the same time, according to my buddy Ron over at picoprojector-info.com. Some of that news is what I’d file under ‘related’ (for example they have got repeat order for their pico projector, the Show WX 2, which can attach to the likes of mobile devices), but one piece of news was most interesting – namely they should be shipping their embedded pico projector modules by Q2 2010 – can you imagine a WinMo device, iPhone, or Android smartphone, packing one of these modules?!!
As it goes, pico projectors are a real dilemma for device manufacturers – whilst they should be a great piece of functionality, they have traditionally added a LOT of bulk to the device – which of course these days, with sub-11mm devices, is frowned upon! So this is why we’ve seen the likes of separate projector modules (like the Show WX 2), and even projectors that ‘mount’ the device to become part of it, for when projection duties are required.
Given many devices have a 9-12 month design cycle, this means that we should potentially expect a tranche of mobile devices packing pico ability, around Q1-Q2 2011. Of course, Microvision are not the only pico-projector manufacturer, but I’d wager that each of these companies is facing the same set of challenges in miniaturising their technology, whilst maintaining brightness, and (!) minimising battery drain.
[Via: picoprojector-info.com]