Seems Stephen Fry will get his wish for mobile projection devices for European iPhones on news that display technology developer Microvision has received an initial purchase order from its European distributor for its SHOWWX™ laser-based pico projector to be sold by one of the world’s top mobile phone operators.
The initial quantities of Showwx are expected to be deployed within the next month in Europe and at that time more details are expected to be provided by the carrier. We suspect this reflects the situation in Europe in which competition between carriers for new iPhone customers will demand better deals at the same price and extended solutions-based approaches to attract new users. Microvision’s Made for iPod Showwx laser pico projector, based on the PicoP display engine, delivers a colourful, vivid “big screen” viewing experience from a device about the size of a mobile phone. “We are extremely pleased to welcome our first global mobile phone operator as a SHOWWX launch customer for 2009,” stated Alexander Tokman, Microvision President and CEO. “Carriers serve as the frontline to mobile subscribers and as a result often influence mobile handset designs to include new features that delight their customers and help achieve a broader subscriber base and higher revenue per user. We believe that interest from one of the three largest carriers in the world in this application and specifically in Microvision’s PicoP laser projection technology is an important first step towards future accessory and embedded opportunities.” Users of the Showwx can also connect to other portable media players, mobile phones and notebooks to spontaneously share movies, YouTube, photos, presentations and more with their friends, family or business associates. The Showwx can project images up to 200 inches across, depending on the ambient lighting conditions, without the user ever having to adjust focus.
