Microvision Gets $8.5 Million Order for Projector Engine
The $8.5 million OEM order for Microvision’s redesigned laser-based embedded engine for micro-projectors will produce revenue for the company in the second half, CEO Alexander Tokman told analysts on a conference call.
The unspecified OEM customer will use Microvision’s PicoP MEMs technology in a high-end multimedia player. Details on the product weren’t available right away. The Microvision officials weren’t available to comment Thursday. The design win is a major coup for Microvision, which has struggled to bring product to market, hampered by tight supply and low yields of the green lasers at the heart of the device. It has shrunk the size of the engine to 7x42x20mm from 14x60x118mm and is pairing it with ASICs from STMicroelectronics and Toshiba (CED March 11 p7).
The newly announced agreement accounted for most of Microvision’s $16.7 million order backlog on March 31, up from $617,000 a year earlier, company officials said. The rest was for the company’s ShowWX micro-projector accessory, which went on sale March 24 in the U.S. The device is being sold as a standalone product ($549) and in a limited edition set ($999) with accessories including batteries and docking stations. Shipments of the ShowWX began last September with Mint Wireless in Australia and Device Plus, which sold it as an accessory through Vodafone in Spain. Microvision posted $264,000 in ShowWX revenue in Q1, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Wilson said. An additional $300,000 worth of projectors shipped in the quarter but weren’t accepted by customers until Q2, Wilson said. Microvision said in March it had ShowWX purchase orders for “north of” 40,000 units. The projector features 848x480 resolution, 10 lumens and 5,000 contrast ratio. The company is moving to reduce power consumption below 1.9 watts.
As sales and orders of PicoP-based products and engines rose, so has the supply of green lasers. Osram joined Corning in providing lasers. Production output and the supply chain improved in late Q1 with the addition of Osram, Tokman said. Microvision converted a “large percentage” of the 3,000 green lasers available into production units, Tokman said. The company received most of the lasers in March, he said. Monthly green laser production doubled in January and February to 1,000 units and was expected to increase to 5,000 units in Q2, Tokman said. Asia Optical is assembling the ShowWX accessory for Microvision. As the laser supply improves, Microvision will launch several marketing programs to drive ShowWX sales at the company’s website, Tokman said.
Microvision’s product revenue cost soared to $1.2 million from $241,000 a year earlier, the projector’s cost exceeding its sale price, Wilson said. The company took a $756,000 write-down in Q1 to reduce the inventory cost to the expected selling price, Wilson said. Microvision had about $450,000 in materials costs for the product in Q1, Wilson said.
Microvision’s Q1 net loss widened to $9.1 million from $8.8 million a year earlier as revenue declined to $668,000 from $951,000, the company said. Contract revenue shrank to $298,000 from $712,000, while those from products rose to $370,000 from $239,000. Projector revenue was $264,000 against zero a year earlier, and sales of bar code scanners fell to $106,000 from $239,000. Microvision cut its investment in bar-code products last year and is trying to sell or license the business, the company said.