New Display Module for Camera-Phone Market

Europe : Royal Philips unveiled its newest product targeting the burgeoning camera-phone market -- a module that includes two color displays and a VGA camera. Dubbed the Compact Clam Color Camera (C4) Module, this new addition to Philips' portfolio of innovative, display-centric products is designed to satisfy OEM demand for highly integrated display modules that can be quickly and easily added to new mobile phones to create feature-rich products. The C4 features a high-performance thin-film transistor (TFT) color main display, a color super-twisted nematic (CSTN) sub-display and a VGA camera -- all in one compact, slim assembly.

According to recent data from Boston, Mass.-based market research firm Strategy Analytics, camera phones are one of the fastest-growing segments of the overall mobile phone market. Over 20 million camera phones were sold worldwide in the second half of 2002, and this pace is expected to accelerate throughout the next two years. Based on Philips' internal market data, the company anticipates the volume to top 100 million by 2004. Moreover, with built-in camera functions now standard in mobile phones, color screens will become an increasingly common feature. In fact, EM Data Service Corp.,
another leading market research firm, estimates that in 2003, over 40 percent of mobile phones will have color screens, with that percentage soaring to 70 percent by 2006.

Peter Hopper, CEO of Philips' Mobile Display Systems business group, noted, "This product, which closely follows our introduction of our first camera phone module three months ago, illustrates the speed with which we are adding integration-ready products to our arsenal. Developed to meet current and imminent market demand for incorporation into new phone designs, this new clamshell-style display module represents the next step in fulfillment of our vision to provide our customers with the Mobile Window(TM), which enables trusted access to people, content and services. With our first two products, we've tackled mechanical and optical integration of components for the
camera-phone market; next, we'll be addressing the demands associated with electrical integration."

Philips' new C4 module enables integration of multimedia messaging service (MMS) capabilities for instant, phone-to-phone transfer of photos and graphics. The C4 incorporates a 128x160 TFT main display capable of supporting 65K colors; a 98x66 color STN sub-display, which can feature information such as time, date, network strength, battery status and caller ID, as well as be used as a viewfinder; and, a VGA camera for high-quality image capture.

Uniquely built around a single backlight system that illuminates both the main and sub-displays, the module also includes a thin, pancake-style vibra-motor and receiver. This thin-profile, integrated design utilizes the latest in thin-display glass technology -- the main display is 0.4 mm in thickness, while the sub-display is 0.5 mm thick. Taken together, these features enable OEMs to manufacture significantly thinner, far less bulky
camera phones, and the module allows them to get their products on the market
quickly.

Mechanical samples of Philips' new C4 display module are available now in limited quantities. Full production-ready modules for integration into mobile phones are expected to be available in Q4 2003.