Around five years ago (Give or take a few) there were rumours circling around the mobile phone industry that mobile phone projectors where going to be the next big thing to be incorporated into mobile phones.  Seriously! And Motorola was the manufacturer supposedly developing the technology.

I know what you’re thinking “I’ve never heard of it” and to be honest I haven’t heard any more about it since back then, but it has always been something I have patiently waited for news about.

Anyway since then we’ve had capacitive touch screens, High definition video, dual core processors, 3D display technology, Android smartphones and the Apple iPhones, so I’ve decided to do some digging around to find out more about mobile phone projectors and if there is ever going to be a handset released in the UK which includes a projector and if not what happened to the idea.

More about the Technology

With mobile phone projection technology you would have had the ability to project large images and video onto a flat surface (wall, table etc) enabling you to share your images and video with others instantly.

In 2009 Samsung Electronics became the first mobile manufacturer to announce the release of the first mobile phones with embedded projection in a standard handset design.  This was possible thanks to Texas Instruments who provided the DLP Pico(TM) Chipset which removed the limitations of the traditional mobile phone screen by easily providing “big picture” viewing experiences.

The handsets Samsung announced where the (Samsung I7410 for European market, W7900 for Korean market)

It seems that as recently as 2010 many of the world’s mobile phone manufacturers were developing micro projectors which would have been able to project images, worksheets, calendars and video onto a flat surface.

With almost everyone having a mobile phone and the demand for mobile digital media, the market for projection mobile phones was possibly huge!

So what happened?

It seems that Samsung has been the main player when it has come to attempting to release mobiles with projectors, apart from the likes of LG which released a mobile projector attachment for the LG eXpo in 2009.

In late 2010 Samsung released the first ever projector mobile onto the UK market, the Samsung i8520 Beam which ran on Android 2.1. Whilst searching I have been unable to gather any further information on this handset such as price etc as it is no longer available from online handset retailers, eBay or anywhere else!

As to why Samsung has not developed another projector handset for the UK market “To be honest” I don’t know, sales figures or any detailed information regarding how well the i8520 beam was received in the UK has proved to be elusive.

From my own understanding of new technologies incorporated into mobile phones I would have to say that maybe the projector seriously infringed upon a handsets battery life or the quality of the actual projected image was poor!

In Conclusion

Personally I don’t think the mobile projector is dead, if you Google the topic there are many related results returned relating to the mobile pico projectors and the like. Also I can’t believe that companies such as Samsung, LG and Motorola would abandon the technology due to them investing so much money in to it, and not forgetting how much video and image projection would enhance the user experience.

What’s your opinion?