The most interesting news that came out of the conference call was Microvision’s partnership with Pioneer. Microvision’s best fan, Karl Guttag, jumped all over Tokman statement about their component commitment has “completed successfully”. I’m not sure what the long term plan is from Pioneer regarding their HUD, but the latest model of the Cyber Navi was just released earlier this spring. A week after Karl’s article, Microvision posted on their blog that they are still in partnership with Pioneer and the next focus will be embedded HUD. I personally was never a fan of Pioneer aftermarket HUD that cost a few thousand dollars plus installation. It was a very interesting product but I don’t see it breaking into the mainstream. Most vehicle owners would prefer factory installed products and I don’t see many in the aftermarket community who are ready to spend thousands of dollars on a navigation system. But this could be Pioneer’s, similar to Microvision ShowWX, product to showcase the future of HUD to car manufactures. In the past, if your car had a cd player, power windows, power door locks, a spoiler and rims, you were driving a top of the line vehicle with all the options. Now days all of those options are pretty much standard. So car manufactures have moved on to providing navigation, back up cameras, self parking etc. To this date, I personally haven’t seen a car with a decent HUD and that’s why I believe Pioneer’s HUD device is just a product to showcase to the manufactures on what a fully developed HUD system looks like. The goal isn’t aftermarket, Pioneer’s and Microvision’s ultimate goal is to create an embedded HUD that integrates with a vehicle’s navigation and communication system. The product would then be factory standard or sold as an option when a customer purchases the vehicle.
So further reading into Guttag’s article regarding
Microvision, he stated that Tokman made a big deal when he mentioned Disney’s
R&D demonstration. I didn’t feel as if Tokman was bragging about Disney’s product,
he was just highlighting that there are several companies out there that are
developing different products utilizing PicoP, but at the end of the day it’s
up to these companies to communicate their products when they feel
necessary. Microvision has given sample
kits to 50+ customers who have the R&D facilities capable to develop new
products. I bet if Microvision released the list of companies that have
received a kit, the market would be in frenzy due to rumors of all the
potential partnerships. However, Microvision has learned their lesson from their
past and is focused on doing their homework and signing committed partners. I
bet Apple requested a PicoP sample kit, they were probably very excited when
they first evaluated it. But at the end of the day, Apple wasn’t anywhere near
close to signing a deal with Microvision and by Tokman throwing out Apples name
during every conference call did more harm than good. I believe Apple is still
interested in Microvision’s but they are waiting until the technology has
matured and they have done all of their research.
Tokman during the conference call did share some very
positive statements going forward. Microvision PicoP technology is far ahead of
the competition. I haven’t seen any pico technology that matches Microvision
PicoP specs. The current PicoP engine is capable of 720p, multi-hour use,
nearly 50 lumens and is focus free. DVD
Players use red lasers, Blu-Ray uses blue lasers, but there a virtually no
devices besides pico projectors that use green lasers. So as Tokman stated, why
would several manufactures enter this market if didn’t already know that laser
based pico projectors will become a huge market. Every study that has looked at
the pico projection market has concluded that there will significant growth
over the next 10 years and that laser projection engines will be the technology
of choice.
