By Jennifer Colegrove – Director, Display Technologies, DisplaySearch

Pocket projectors are small devices that can provide a large image, providing a way around the form factor limit for portable electronics. When I first researched the pocket projector market in 2004, there were no projectors less than 1 pound in the market. However there were already innovators in development that demonstrated the concept of a match-box sized projector.

Fast-forward five years: in 2009 there were over 130 pocket projectors commercially available, a dramatic change from around 10 models in the market in 2008.

Just this week, Microvision, the developer of the PicoP® scanning MEMS technology and pocket projector SHOWWX, announced that it has received purchase orders of over $16.7 million for PicoP-based products, both the accessory pico projector and PicoP display engine.

Figure 1: Pocket Projectors

Source: Microvision (to left), 3M (top right), Syndiant (bottom)

In our recently released Pocket Projector Technology and Market Forecast Report, DisplaySearch forecasts that the total pocket projector market will grow from 0.5 million units in 2009 to 142 million units in 2018.

At the SID DisplaySearch Business Conference on May 24 in Seattle, DisplaySearch will provide its newly released pocket projector market forecast for 2010 to 2018, supply chain analysis and insights of successful factors of pocket projectors. Innovators Syndiant, Microvision, and 3M Mobile Interactive Solutions Division will present the merits of their approaches.  Please join us.