Mitsubishi Pushes Ahead with Plans for $699 Pocket Projector
LAS VEGAS -- Mitsubishi has postponed shipment of its 14-oz. so-called pocket projector to late Sept. and plans to aggressively promote the product, despite indications rivals are hedging their bets. While BenQ, InFocus and Samsung have shown prototype models, Mitsubishi has emerged as the sole supplier so far with plans to sell the DLP-based projector at retail this year.
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Mitsubishi had planned to deliver the projector in July featuring a single 0.55” DLP with 800x600 resolution, 25-30 lumens and 550:1 contrast ratio. But Mitsubishi has struggled to obtain enough high-brightness LEDs from Lumileds to ensure the projector is available in mass quantities. Mitsubishi will target specialty retailers like Sharper Image in addition to national CE chains, although no distribution agreements have been signed, Product Mktg. Dir. James Chen said. “As of right now we can’t get enough high-brightness LEDs to yield a mass market,” said Chen, whose projector uses 3 LEDs and draws about 17 w of power.
While industry officials have been critical of the projector’s low brightness, Chen argued that’s of more concern to industry insiders than consumers, who “are more willing to compromise for convenience.”
The brightness of the pocket projectors is forecast to increase to 33 and 40 lumens in 2006 and 2007, respectively, said Hans-Joachim Stohr, sales & mktg. dir. at Carl Zeiss Jena, which is supplying the optical module for the Mitsubishi projector. InFocus officials have countered that the brightness of the pocket projectors needs to reach 100 lumens before it becomes a promising product.
For the pocket projectors, Zeiss developed field lens optical architecture that uses some of the same components for illumination and projection functions. Standard front projectors have separate optical and illumination systems. Under the field lens design light from a lamp is transmitted to the panel by means of several optical components in the illumination beam path. It’s then injected into the projection system. On the way to the panel, this portion of the optics works as an illumination system. The same optic acts as a zoom lens, which the panel enlarges and displays on a wall or screen.
In marketing the projector, Mitsubishi will package RCA cables with it, but also seek sell additional accessories. Among them are high-gain (6) screens from Vutec (SilverScreen) and Accuon (Cameleon Cinema) and a nickel-metal hydride battery ($199) with a 2.5-hour life, Chen said.
To find a market, pocket projectors will likely draft on the success of products that would complement them like portable DVD players, digital cameras and gaming systems, Chen said. He forecast that products that potentially could be used in concert with a pocket projector are expected to total 131.7 million and 142.9 million units in 2005 and 2006, respectively. But sales of pocket projectors during the same time are expected to total 44,780 and 120,067 units, Chen said.
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While InFocus is traditionally a mainstay of the Infocomm show floor, the company this year also is hunkering down in nearby hotel suite to show new products expected to be introduced in Jan., sources said. Company officials declined to release product details, but said some of the emphasis will be on lowering costs. The ability to produce lower cost products was central to InFocus’s forming the South Mountain Technologies joint venture with TCL in Dec.