When Qualcomm last week announced its Q3 2012 financial results, it announced its decision to halt Mirasol display production. The Mirasol technology was able to display colours and was readable even in direct sunlight. While the technology held promise, Qualcomm found it difficult to manufacture and install in tablets. According to The Digital Reader, about half of the displays produced turned out to be unusable.
Qualcomm will now look to license the technology to other manufacturers. Accoring to CEO Paul E. Jacobs:
With respect to QMT, we’re now focusing on licensing our next-generation mirasol display technology and will directly commercialize only certain mirasol products. We believe that this strategy will better align our updated roadmap with the addressable opportunities.
The benefit of Mirasol’s low-power requirements simply could not outweigh the cost of manufacturing (and the resulting market price of devices) as well as the advancements now being made in the general tablet market.
It remains to be seen if someone else will be able to resurrect Mirasol in the future…
Read more: http://seekingalpha.com/ (Source: TechCrunch)