Last October 11th in DD, I wrote about an announcement from VP Dynamics for 7" and 10" panels they claimed could be used for HDTV. Sharp has an even smaller 16:9 panel with a 4.3" diagonal and a resolution of 480 x 272 pixels. In a recent announcement from Sharp, this panel, intended for mobile applications, is now available with an integrated touch screen. Can more 16:9 portable media players (PMPs) be far behind?

Matt Brennesholtz
Insight Media Analyst

The panel not only has an integrated touch screen with a 4-wire resistive interface, it has an integrated BLU with 9 LEDs as the illumination source which provides it with 500 nits of screen brightness. The normally white LCD has 8 bit per color drive, 300:1 contrast and a 120 (H) by 100 (V) degree viewing cone. The panel, including the LED BLU consumes about 1.2 watts of power.

The panel has been available since July 2006 without the integrated touch screen. Sharp listed the potential applications of that panel as:

• - Personal computers
• - Office automation
• - Telecommunication equipment
• - Test and measurement equipment
• - Industrial control
• - Personal digital assistant
• - Audio visual and multimedia equipment
• - Consumer electronics

This panel is available in unit quantity from Sharp today for $145. Volume pricing was not announced, but Insight Media estimates it would cost between $14 and $20 in a 100K order from a preferred customer. While Sharp indicates the primary applications of this panel are expected to be commercial and industrial, the panel specifications and estimated volume price certainly do not rule it out as a display in a PMP. There are some 16:9 PMPs out there such as the Archos 604 with 4.3" panels and they may well have the earlier version of this panel in them. Sharp’s integration of a touch screen panel will make design of these systems easier in the future.

Insight Media is not aware of any announced design wins for this panel in a PMP, although we have heard it has been suggested. Well, it has been suggested again…

For a more detailed version of this story, see the May issue of MDR.