Pico Projectors Expanding to Combo Products
Optoma and Wowwee Ltd.’s combo pico projector/audio docks appear to signal the start of a gradual merging of mini-projector technology into a range of other products.
Optoma’s Neo-i ($499) builds the company’s PK-301 pico projector into an Apple iPod sound dock with two speakers with one-inch drivers and 16 watts total power. The pico projector, which uses Luminus LEDs, features 50 lumens and contains Texas Instruments 0.3-inch DLP chip with 854x480 resolution. Wowwee is readying the Cinemin Slice audio dock/pico projector ($399) for the same line of Apple products. The device contains a revamped version of Wowwee’s Cinemin pico projector that uses the same 0.3-inch microdisplay, but improves the resolution to 854x480 from 800x600 and doubles the brightness to 16 lumens. The audio dock’s two 1-inch speaker drivers deliver 6 watts. It has 1,000:1 contrast ratio, a 1,900-milliampere lithium ion battery and an adjustable viewing angle of up to 90 degrees. The Neo-I is compatible with iPhone, iPod and iTouch, and the Cinemin Slice also works with iPad.
In growing the combo category, Optoma is weighing putting the Neo-i into a line of products to add compatibility with Apple’s iPad and its AirPlay streaming technology, Product Manager Walter Marshall told us. “As the pico projection specs become more robust, we will definitely incorporate them in other products as well as continue them in standalone devices,” Marshall said. Optoma and Wowwee have battled for shelf space at Brookstone, Wowwee currently having the upper hand.
As it expands into sound docks, Wowwee narrowed its range of projectors. Wowwee unveiled three pico projectors at the 2009 CES, including the Swivel ($349), Stick ($299) and Station ($199), featuring a 0.17-inch DLP but has since shifted to focus on the Swivel, a spokesman said. The new Slice is essentially a new version of the Station with improvements in resolution and brightness, he said. The original Swivel and Stick had 420x240 and 800x600 resolutions.
Besides expanding into combo products, Optoma has delivered private label pico projectors -- PKA21 and PKA31 -- to Apple. The private label projectors replaced Optoma’s PK201 and PK301, but it hasn’t affected Optoma’s business, said Jon Grodem, senior director of product and marketing. “Has it been incremental or did it steal share?” he said. “It didn’t steal share.” In Apple stores where Optoma has provided product training, sales of the projectors have doubled, he said.
The new introductions from Optoma and Wowwee came as pico projector sales rose to more than 100,000 units in Q3 from 45,000 units a year earlier, said William Cogshall, president of Pacific Media Associates. Among those re-testing the waters for pico projectors is Toshiba, whose PC group in Europe is marketing two models under the Lumileo brand, said Jack Segal, senior research associate at Pacific Media. The Lumileo P100 and M200 feature a DLP chip with 640x480 resolution, 14 lumens, 200:1 contrast ratio and 0.5-watt speaker. The step-up M200 has 2 GB of memory and can handle M.264 video. The M200 also shifts to an 1,800 milliampere battery from the 1,200 milliampere model in the P100.
Toshiba dropped front projectors a year ago, and the new models don’t signal the company’s return to the business around the world, Segal said. Toshiba Semiconductor, which is separate from the PC group, also is said to be working on pico projector light engines, but the Lumileo projectors were sourced from a third-party manufacturer.
Meanwhile, Optoma will in mid-December ship its $399 converter box that allows 120 Hz 720p 3D DLP projectors to play 1080p 3D Blu-ray discs. Optoma distributor AVAD is weighing packaging the convertor box with RealD 3D glasses. Optoma also has no immediate plans to replace the $999 HD20 1080p front projector, whose supplies are tight, Grodem said. Optoma was the first company to introduce a 1080p-capable projector at $999 in November 2009 and hasn’t lowered the price since. “We thought for sure someone would followed us to $999 from one of the other technologies, but nobody did,” Grodem said.