DLP

Young Optics say that global shipments of pico-projectors reached 437,791 in the first half of 2010. 46% of these were LCoS based mobile phones offered by Chinese white-box vendors (this is somewhat surprising, isn't it?), and 10% were DLP-based handset models. Total 2010 stand-alone pico-projector shipments are estimated at 900,000. In 2011, these will grow to over 2 million units.

Prices for pico projector modules are expected to drop to US$50 by the end of 2010, which is still higher than clients' expectations, Young Optics said, adding that module prices are expected to drop below US$30 in 2012.

The company says that the market for projector cameras will grow significantly in 2011, judging from orders from clients. The market of pico projectors for handsets will pick up in 2012.

Samsung's new pico-projector, the SP-H03 is now available for pre-order in the US for $299. It will ship soon, although we do not know when exactly. The H03 is a DLP WVGA (854x480) 30 lumens pico projector with 1GB of internal memory and a microSD slot (supporting movies, Office documents and PDFs). Ports include VGA, USB and Composite.

Pre-order the SP-H03 now for $299, over at Amazon.com.

Optoma hopes to sell over 70,000 pico-projectors in 2010, up from 37,600 in 2009 and 10,600 in 2008. Optoma's market hare was 13.1% in 2009, down from 29.8% in 2008. Global pico-projector shipments are expected to exceed one million units in 2010 (up from 286,000 in 2009).

Optoma PK-201

Optoma's latest projectors are the PK-201 and PK-301, both offering WVGA DLP chips, internal memory (and a MicroSD slot) and A/V, USB and VGA connectors. The PK-201 offers 20 lumens and costs $299, while the PK-301 offers 50 lumens and costs $386.

Digitimes has posted an interesting update about pico-projectors.First of all, they report that the upcoming Nikon camera-projector will be using Himax Technologies' LCoS module. It will hit the market in August. Another digital camera with a DLP projector is being co-developed by Asia Optical and TI. It will start shipping in September.

Asia Optical plans to ship 200,000-250,000 modules for Microvisions' Show-WX projector in 2010, and 100,000 modules for other vendors. In 2011 they expect to ship 8 million DLP modules for handsets. In 2012 it will grow to 12 million.

Digitimes also gives an update on pricing: a 11cc DLP light engine was priced at about $65-100 in 2009, and this will drop to $50-85 in 2010, with the size shrinking to 8cc. A 10cc LCoS costs $65 (in 2009, anyway), and this will be reduced to $30-50 in 2010, with the size dropping to only 4.5cc.

Samsung say that the Galaxy Beam will launch on July, in Singapore (a European and Asian launch will follow soon afterwards). The Galaxy Beam has a 3.7" Super-AMOLED display, WVGA DLP pico-projector (that isn't very bright, only 6 lumens), Android v2.1, Wi-Fi, 8mp camera, A-GPS, FM radio and HD video recording.

Samsung i8520 Beam

Via OLED-Info

Aiptek plans to offer a 50-lumens 3D pico projector in March 2011, and a 100-lumens model in 2012 that will not require glasses (the 2011 will require special glasses).

In 2010, Aiptek plans to launch the Z20 (a camcorder with a built-in pico projector) and also a bright (40-50 lumens) DLP projector that will cost below $300.

Yesterday, Syndiant has sent us photos showing their 6-way projector shootout, comparing 6 different technologies. Visitors to SID (starting next week) will be able to check this personally, but in the meantime, we asked Syndian't CTO (Karl Guttag) a few questions on the setup and about Syndiant's pico-projector technology.

Q: The 6-way shootout is very interesting. How can we be sure that you guys are objective?
The demonstration has a mix of image content from personal to business applications so people can see and judge for themselves. We are doing the comparison at SID and Projection Summit where the audience is technically knowledgeable about displays. We are showing the electrical power consumption of each projector as measured with the same lab equipment. While there are some design differences in the video input capabilities of each projector, we think the Lumens/Watt is as close to an apple to apple system power comparison as we have seen done.