There are several potential obstacles that may impact a product’s ability to reach its full market potential in the near term. In a field where technology is evolving, it becomes highly essential that new technologies can be integrated with the existing systems so that the cost of switch over to a new technology for the manufacturers would be minimum. Adoption of a new technology is quicker when the costs involved are lesser.

Frost & Sullivan (www.ti.frost.com) finds that the display industry is driven by hot new applications such as mobile phones, MP3 players, digital cameras and camcorders, portable games and video players and automotive entertainment and navigation displays. The expanded usage of many new, hotter and brighter applications is driving the need for new materials that can extend the lifecycle and provide higher performance of these devices.

“Although displays have been around for quite sometime now, the display technologies are undergoing rapid changes with companies and researchers developing not only newer technologies but also innovative solutions that address some of the shortcomings of the already existing ones,” notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Archana Jayarajah.

The display industry has long been striving to create a display that most clearly resembles real life images in terms of color, brightness and contrast. New display technologies are always being investigated to address some of the challenges faced by current designs and to offer manufacturers an opportunity to improve performance, extend battery life or reduce the form factor of new generations of devices.

New generations of mobile devices are being designed to support applications that require greater on-screen performance, such as GPS/navigation systems, test and measurement instruments and portable patient monitoring equipment. With mobile products becoming more data-centric and PDAs and digital still cameras moving toward higher resolution screens, the demands upon power consumption will become more severe.

“Display technologies are advancing at a rapid pace. Newer flatter and sleeker displays are replacing CRTs on a daily basis. A display device whether it is a TV or a monitor or a notebook will become waste sooner or later. Display manufacturers are faced with the responsibility of disposing the displays once the end-of-life of these products is reached,” says Jayarajah.

This may be a technology hurdle for the future, however it would make sense for the manufacturers to address these issues today by considering the disposal issue while designing the display.