Microvision Readying Lower-Priced Pico Projector

Microvision is readying a lower-priced new version of its ShowWX pico-projector that increases brightness 50 percent, as the company seeks to recover from a key customer’s decision to delay shipment of a product. Microvision didn’t release specs for the new model. The current ShowWX projector is sold at a loss at a price above $500, company officials have said. It offers 10 lumens and 854x480 resolution. Microvision has aired plans for 720p model with 15 lumens that features ASICs from STMicroelectronics and Toshiba. The projector will ship late this month, CEO Alexander Tokman said in a conference call.

A customer that placed $11.9 million in orders for Microvision’s 7x42x20mm MEMs light engine postponed delivery to the first-half of 2011 from September of a high-end multimedia player containing it. The first revenue from the agreement was to arrive in late Q3, and additional money was due in Q4, company officials said (CED Aug 9 p5). The product was delayed as the customer moved to switch the product to an Android operating system from Microsoft’s, Microvision Chief Financial Officer Jeff Wilson said. The customer accounted for about $12 million of $18 million in back orders that Microvision had Sept. 30. The other $6 million was for the standalone ShowWX pico-projector.

A second customer that was private labeling an accessory projector cut deliveries in Q3 as it required Microvision get Apple iPhone 4 and iPad certification for the device, Wilson said. The customer is believed to be Uniden. The projector, developed before the release of iPhone 4 and iPad, was redesigned to gain Apple certification, Wilson said. The delay and reduced order slashed $2.2 million from Microvision’s Q3 sales, company officials said.

And Microvision’s frequency-doubled green laser supplier Corning is ending development efforts. Corning’s decision, made as development shifts to direct green lasers, won’t affect Microvision’s projector business, Tokman said. Corning struggled with yield issues, and Osram came on as a second supplier in March. Osram is expected to deliver 10,000 to 15,000 green lasers a month in Q4, and 150,000 to 200,000 in 2011, all for Microvision, Tokman said.

The first direct green lasers are expected to arrive starting in late 2011 from some of the five companies developing them, Tokman said. Frequency-doubled green lasers use infrared manipulated to create green light, a process that reduces wavelength. The conversion requires multiple components held to very tight tolerances, making their manufacture “more challenging,” Tokman said. Direct green lasers are single chip products that simplify design and manufacturing and will cost about 20 percent less than frequency-doubled versions that sell for up to $20 depending on order size, Tokman said. Microvision received green laser evaluation samples from two manufacturers last week and integrated them in cellphone prototypes, he said. The images from the direct laser-equipped cellphones were “stable and vibrant” and exceeded “all expectations for such an early integration,” Tokman said.

Microvision’s Q3 net loss widened to $11.9 million from $11.5 million a year earlier, as the company took at $2 million write down on inventory, tied both to the current projector’s being sold at a loss and to materials in stock that will be obsolete as new products are introduced, Wilson said. Revenue rose to $1.3 million from $924,000 a year ago. Microvision ended the quarter with $21.3 million in cash, enough to carry the company to April, Wilson said. But the company also has raised $12.4 million in cash through its equity financing facility, which stood at $47 million Sept. 30, Wilson said. Microvision restructured sales and marketing operations during the quarter, hiring “several high caliber” senior executives and increasing the number of distribution points for ShowWX to 19 from 11.

Microvision received two contracts from the U.S. Navy and Air Force worth $1 million total, Tokman said. The money will be used to develop eyewear as well as an enhanced laser display system, Tokman said. It also delivered MEMs-based head-up display (HUD) demonstrators to two automakers. Microvision didn’t identify the auto makers, but the company has worked with Visteon in the past. Motorola also has changed “internal development” away from the cellphone/projector it was working on with Microvision, Microvision officials said. “We are trying to accommodate their other internal problems that they need to rework before they can focus on something like this,” Tokman said.