> (3) mobile phones have
> mind-bogglingly fast development cycles, and adapting an existing
> hardware design to use a different display is a routine process; also,
> serving a volume market, development teams can be large, possibly even
> with a dedicated expert for display technology;

In my old job we used to develop displays for Nokia (back when they were 
#1) and they had several entire departments dedicated for display 
technology. The staff were all display experts. The way it worked is 
that you "sold" your capability to one of the platform display teams 
within Nokia, they then marketed it on your behalf to the rest of the 
business that was actually developing the handsets. You might start off 
with 4 handsets planning to use your display, then it would go up or 
down during development depending on the demand. Occasionally it would 
go down to zero and the project would be stopped. Having to provide 
several thousand prototype displays within 3-4 months of the project 
starting was quite normal though, total project time from nothing to 
full mass production was usually about 18 months.

There was also another whole department for future display technology, 
they demanded to see every 6 months your prototypes for what was going 
to be possible in the next 2-4 years. Things like touch screens and 
ultra high ppi screens started off in these meetings, but they were 
convinced there was no need for these and instead concentrated on trying 
to push OLED displays. Then Apple brought out the iPhone...

Post a reply to this message