WRT (With Respect To) Technology

CTIA Wireless 2010 held March 22-25 at the Las Vegas Convention Center is a good show to benchmark the state-of-the-art in mobile display applications.  While mobile phones make up a good portion of the show, other mobile device display applications including e-readers, tablet PCs, netbooks, mobile internet devices and more were prominent.

The customary CTIA Wireless keynote addresses held each morning prior to the opening of the exhibit floor were informative and high energy.  Although strong, the keynotes were perhaps not as engaging as April 1, 2008’s address by Richard Branson.  Sir Richard concluded his keynote by inviting audience members who would volunteer for Virgin Galactic’s and Google’s joint project Virgle, to travel to Mars to establish a colony, to join him on-stage.  However, the panel discussion keynote on the third day moderated by CNBC Anchor and Reporter Michelle Caruso-Cabrera with Avatar Director James Cameron, Aneesh Chopra, Obama administration CTO, U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter, made for some eclectic and lively discussion.  Director Cameron remarked that Avatar is the most pirated film ever while Mr. Stone suggested that all one had to do to catch the pirates was to scan internet users for eye patches.

The first day keynotes included an address by J.K. Shin, President, Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. during which he emphasized the themes of Screen, Speed and Content.  The choice of display Screen as his first theme became clearer during Samsung’s “Unpacked” press conference immediately following Mr. Shin’s first day keynote.

Given the wide range of portable products and applications exhibited at CTIA, there were a comparably wide range of input and output technologies for display and user interface control.  The exhibit floor space was perhaps a bit smaller than when I last attended in 2008, but there was no shortage of new product announcements.

Many of the announcements involved advanced displays.  These included Samsung’s roll out of their Galaxy S smart phone with a 4 inch “Super” AMOLED display with an integrated capacitive touch screen – clearly aimed as a direct competitor to Apple’s iPhone.

While e-readers were emphasized by only a few exhibitors, Kobo www.kobobooks.com launched new e-reader hardware, the Kobo^TM eReader.  While the Kobo^TM eReader was a relatively conventional E-Ink display based e-reader, the hardware platform is a complement to the family of Kobo eReading service and software offerings that promise to be device neutral, content rich, open and globally based.

On the input device side, Invensense showed their digital 3-axis gyroscope as a partner participant in the Qualcomm booth.  Invensense gyroscope technology is currently employed in a range of consumer electronics products for image stabilization in digital cameras and in the Nintendo Wii game accessory the Wii MotionPlus.  Invensense demonstrated at CTIA a smartphone handset with highly accurate gesture input capability.  Although there were other new display and input device applications at CTIA, one that particularly stood out for its novelty was NTT Docomo’s demonstration of eye-controlled earphones as a new form of user input device.

If you would like to see photos from the show and learn more details about the Mobile Display and User Interface advances that we found at CTIA Wireless 2010, I recommend that you visit Insight Media’s website and subscribe to their Mobile Display Report.

Well it’s only April 1 and we await iPad availability on April 3.  Based on my prior iPad post, I must take the opportunity to correct an error and curb my enthusiasm.  In my prior post citing the Apple iPad, I incorrectly assumed that the Mr. Neil Young that I quoted was in fact the artist, musician and entrepreneur I follow and admire so much.  However, the article referred to Mr. Neil Young, Founder and CEO of gaming company Ngmoco. I can only conclude that we should be very careful (and do our research) about the names we see in print.  Mea culpa.

Nevertheless, the iPad will issue forth Saturday, April 3, and the interest continues to grow.  In some quarters, interest in the iPad is strong, particularly from applications developers and the VCs financing them. The video below captures the VC interest in the upcoming iPad release.

Other iPad observers seem to be taking more of a “wait and see” approach.  David Pogue’s dueling-points-of-view pre-reviews of the iPad in the March 31 New York Times capture the opposing opinions of the importance of the iPad.

We will have to wait for at least this weekend, and likely beyond, to reach a conclusion concerning the importance of the iPad.  Clearly, Steve Jobs has succeeded again in raising Apple’s profile in the consumer electronics world, and has perhaps distracted us from fixating on the features of the expected new version of the iPhone.  Nevertheless, the ecosystem of users, applications developers and content providers that Apple has woven around the iDevice universe are moving forward together to drive Apple to greater heights.

When I think about it, Neil Young is a pretty important content creator himself.  Neil, how will your content play on the iPad…  Neil, are you out there?

As I prepare to attend the CTIA Wireless 2010 show in Las Vegas this week, I am reflecting on how interesting the conference should be with the perennial absence of Apple and the imminent market introduction of the Apple iPad. When I attended and analyzed CTIA 2008, the mobile industry was scrambling to react at all levels to the market introduction and success of the Apple iPhone.

In 2010, it is clear that Apple has strongly influenced mobile industry structure, as well as consumers’ expectations of a mobile device and the ecosystem that surrounds it including service providers, handset designers, applications developers, content providers, accessory makers, and more.  As I pointed out in an earlier article, in my view an essential element that makes the iPad different in an important way is that the iPad is the first widely available platform that will give users and developers the opportunity to explore large-size, multi-touch applications.  This device characteristic combined with Apple’s appeal to the mass market, and the built-in user base and developer community created with the iPhone, have enabled Apple, its customers, and developers to invent the future of user interfaces.  Thus I found an article from the March 21 New York Times revealing and supporting my position.  Neil Young co-founder and head of the iPhone gaming studio Ngmoco, said his company was updating several games to accommodate the iPad, including a multiplayer game called Charadium where players draw items and take turns guessing what the picture is.  The game will get new controls and a roomier blank pad to draw on.

“There are so many more places to touch on the screen,” he said. “We can have a lot more fun with it.” ”

Naturally, since the ever green/very durable Mr. Young is one of my all time favorite musicians, song writers, entrepreneurs, I am happy to see that I am in good company with my views of the iPad.

With “so many more places to touch” the iPad will present us all with an opportunity to test our ideas and see where they lead.

Apple’s highly anticipated unveiling of their iPad tablet revealed an impressive new device in an as yet unproven product category. Tablet computing has been discussed for several years without yet becoming a major category. E-readers like the Amazon Kindle have had some success with the form factor but address a narrower range of applications than the iPad strives to tackle. However, like the Kindle, Apple has included, and may improve upon, the wireless capability, content partners, and content store business model that have served the Kindle so well. In analyzing reactions to the iPad and assessing what makes the iPad different in important ways, I have settled on one aspect that will allow the iPad to set itself apart and will potentially lead to its success.

The iPad is the first widely available platform that will give users and developers the opportunity to explore large size multi-touch applications. Steve Jobs made the point that in developing the iPad, Apple stands on the shoulders of devices like the Kindle. The iPad also stands on the many shoulders, and benefits from the ecosystem, of multi-touch-trained users, content providers, and applications developers that Apple created with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Along with their good industrial design, and excellent hardware and software attributes, Apple has consistently been a leader in providing elegant and effective user interfaces. Apple has steadily incorporated high quality input/output devices (displays, keyboards, mice, touch screens) in its products. In recent years, multi-touch input has been a notable feature of Apple products including MacBook computers, the iPhone, iPod Touch and Magic Mouse. No other device designer has had such wide success with touch interfaces.

Apple’s iPad is a bold extension of the touch interface to a much larger size allowing more evolved one hand and two hand gestural inputs. To give earlier workers their due, there have been prior developers that have demonstrated large scale multi-touch devices. However, Apple’s legions of app developers will likely have a field day working to exploit the interface opportunities.

Other ingredients of the iPad may evolve in future versions (cameras, voice, wireless air interface, etc.) but multi-touch input will likely be the defining feature that determines the success of Apple’s latest offering in the tablet category. The continued evolution and success of the touch interface will be validated, or not, by the iPad. Multi-touch on the iPad will be the product’s breakthrough or breaking point. The app store opens the iPad to experimentation by developers and users. I wonder who could have anticipated SonicMule’s Ocarina app for the iPhone and the music potential that has sprung from it.

By creating a larger size, mass market, touch device with a built-in user base and developer community, Apple has enabled its customers and developers to invent the future of user interfaces.

IntertechPira has announced availability of a new report on Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) entitled “The Future of OLEDs for Lighting and Displays.”  This market and technology report authored by Phillip Wright of WRT Associates analyses the current status and future trends for OLEDs used in display and lighting applications.  The OLED report describes the key drivers and trends for the ongoing development of OLED technology, discusses the applications of OLEDs to lighting and displays by end use product, and provides market forecasts for OLED display and lighting revenues for the next five years to 2014.

As a result of the sustained development efforts on OLED technology, the market for OLED lighting and displays is poised to grow from $615 million in 2008 to more than $6700 million in 2014, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 44%.  The OLED report will be of interest to individuals and businesses that are seeking to update their knowledge of Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) and answer questions concerning this important emerging technology.

Consumers are eagerly awaiting televisions and mobile phones with brilliant, and low power consumption, OLED displays.  OLED lighting is just now coming to market offering lighting designers and the lighting industry new lighting efficiency and design freedoms.  The OLED report addresses many key questions concerning the OLED industry, markets and technology:

• What barriers must be overcome to bring affordable products with OLED displays to consumers?
• When will these barriers be surmounted?
• When will OLED lighting begin shipping in lighting applications?
• What are these OLED lighting applications?
• What challenges must OLED lighting and displays overcome to reach market and gain market share from incumbent display and lighting products?
• What alternative lighting and display technologies will compete for market share with OLEDs?
• Who are the players in the OLED industry today and what will the competitive landscape look like in 2014?
• What are current OLED display revenues by product application and how will they grow in future?
• When will OLED lighting reach the billion dollar revenue mark?

IntertechPira’s new report, “The Future of OLED Lighting and Displays,” answers these questions about OLEDs and provides the reader with a thorough overview, status and analysis of the OLED industry and markets.

Take a look at a slide presentation or a webinar introducing the new OLED report.  Let us know your thoughts on the evolution of OLED technology and markets.