With corporate reporting season is in full swing, we often hear of the latest results from big companies like Intel, Microsoft, Ford, GM or GE. The smaller companies don’t typically make any headlines and are easy to overlook. In this case my interest was sparked by a press release by Kopin (Taunton, MA). This manufacturer of GaAs transistors (HBT) and LCD based microdisplays managed to report not only the fifth consecutive profitable quarter but also record revenues of $32 million with a net income of $8.5 million.

Norbert Hildebrand
Insight Media Analyst

According to the press release the outstanding results were based on strong demand for military displays and III-V products. Mentioning the III-V products as a driver for success comes somewhat as a surprise as their most important application is in wireless devices such as cell phones, which have gone through a significant downturn in 2008/2009. On the other hand their products are mainly used in higher end models such as Smartphones, which have grown significantly over the last years. In summary the quarterly results are shown in the Quarterly Revenue Breakdown chart below.

The chart compares the revenue streams of Kopin for the 3rd Quarter of FY2009 with the same quarter of 2008. As mentioned above, the III-V product group is enjoying significant growth driven by the high-end cell phone market.

In the display market segment only the military segment shows growth while all other segments are contracting.

In summary, the revenue growth during the current market downturn is driven by military as well as consumer applications. This is something not many companies can put on their report card. As far as displays are concerned, Kopin seems to go the way of most US display manufacturers, developing exciting new technologies and products to see the high volume consumer products being exploited by Asian companies, and being left with lower volume military applications. What has Kopin up its sleeves to prevent this from happening?

Over the last few weeks Kopin has shown a working prototype of their Gen 3 Golden-i headset. The valued readers of our Mobile Display Report are aware of this wearable computing/controlling device from our report in May 2009. The news here is the presentation of a working prototype in the Microsoft Booth at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston on September 22-23, 2009. In addition, Kopin plans to ship the first product for customer field trials in December of 2009, with a final product to be released some time in 2010. Aimed primarily at industrial and military applications, the general consumer will have to wait a little until he can control his computer, HDTV, etc. from his favorite recliner.

The other interesting product from Kopin is the well-known Cyber display, which is used in many viewfinder and personal eyewear products. One of those products is the Vuzix Corporation’s Wrap 310 video display. With sub VGA resolution these 2D / 3D capable glasses have been around for some time without capturing a significant market share. Taking some hints from the very successful market introduction of the Amazon Kindle, the video glasses were showcased on October 23, 2009 on Oprah. While Oprah was very amazed with the virtual display, it has still to be seen if she can repeat her success from the electronic book reader introduction with this product category.

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