14 New Projectors Make Way To Market

"The flurry of innovation in the past two to three years has, in effect, handed the mantle of power over to the buyer," says Eric Haruki, research manager of displays and projectors at IDC, which predicts unit sales of projectors to grow at a 22.9 percent compounded annual rate through 2008.

Epson launched three new projectors in June. The PowerLite 835p ($3,899) features 802.11g Wi-Fi connectivity and advanced network-control features. The 3,000-lumen, 10.8-pound projector includes WEP/WPA for encryption and LEAP for authentication. Epson also introduced two additions to its "Value Series" line. The PowerLite 81p features XGA resolution and is priced at $1,799, while the PowerLite 61p offers SVGA resolution for $1,499; both are rated at 2,000 lumens.

The following month, NEC Solutions America's Visual Systems Division launched four projectors, each priced at $999. The VT47 and VT470 are both SVGA (800-x-600 native resolution) projectors, with a brightness of 1,500 and 2,000 lumens, respectively. The VT570 and VT670 offer 1,024-x-768 resolution and a brightness of 1,300 lumens and 2,100 lumens, respectively.

Meanwhile, Canon replaced its LV-X2 projector with the new LV-X4 microportable in August, increasing brightness to 1,500 lumens from 1,100 in the LV-X2. Weighing just 6.4 pounds, the $1,999 LV-X4 features an XGA resolution of 1,024-x-768 and supports SXGA resolution through high-quality compression. Its ultrawide-angle 1.6x optical zoom lens can display a 100-inch diagonal image from only 8.2 feet. Industry leader InFocus has injected a PC-free projector into its popular ASK Proxima product line. The C170 meeting room projector can download JPEG images from a key fob-size USB flash drive. It comes with a software utility for converting documents to compatible JPEG images. The 2,000-lumens C170 is compatible with the InFocus LiteShow wireless module and ProjectorNet network control software. The 5.2-pound C170 has an estimated street price of $1,999.

While semiportable projectors in the 10- to 39-pound class account for 61 percent of the market, ever-lighter portable projectors are the fastest growing segment of this market, IDC's Haruki says. "We expect the sub-3-pound category to be a growth engine for the industry," he says. "Unit shipments for this category will never measure up to the 5- to 10-pound value products in the market, but the sub-3-pound category will continue to grow, nonetheless, capturing 5.4 percent of the worldwide unit market share in 2004, and 13.2 percent by the end of...2008."

For its part, Sharp has come out with a pair of "pico portable" projectors--the XR-1S and XR-1X. Weighing just more than 3 pounds, they sport Zeiss lenses and DDR DLP technology, making them suitable for data or video projection. The 1,200-lumens XR-1X is just a tad brighter than the 1,100 lumens XR-1S, and at $2,400, about $600 pricier than its dimmer sister.

In the middleweight large-venue class, Toshiba's new TLP-X4500U projector weighs in at 17 pounds with 4,500 lumens. The $6,499 unit includes two 1-watt speakers, XGA resolution, DVI, S-video, composite inputs and 750-to-1 contrast ratio.

David Hakala ([email protected]) has chronicled IT innovations since 1988, focusing on channel partner issues since 1998.