According to a report by IMS Research the future is bright for projectors designed to work with mobile phones. Many of these devices were showcased at the 2008 Mobile World Congress and Consumer Electronics Show, and though they are not yet available, IMS predicts the first wave to hit the market by the end of this year.
IMS explains that there are a few different methods for mobile projection: ranging from Texas Instruments use of millions of tiny mirrors to Microvision’s single mirror approach to Light Blue Optics use of holographic laser lights. Each of these projectors is capable of displaying full color, vibrant images of a size that would be ideal for watching television or other types of visual multimedia for an extended period of time.
However, report analyst Femi Omoni said, in a statement: “In spite of the encouraging factors that accompany mobile projectors, they are still a separate gadget from the handset itself. Having to carry a device separate from the mobile phone completely goes against the gospel of convergence that most manufacturers and operators have been preaching for the past few years.”
He cautions device developers to “consider how many consumers will be willing to carry around both a phone and a projector,” especially as the market has been pushing the idea of only needing one device.
But the report says that the lure of being able to properly display stored programming, visual multimedia and Mobile TV with their phones will serve as incentive for many early adopters, even as manufacturers are still working to shrink projectors down to the point where they can be embedded in handsets.