I admit that making this analogy is a bit of a stretch. Nonetheless, given a generous amount of literary license, it is possible perhaps, to use the analogy to draw an instructive perspective based on a recent development in the display industry. Here it goes.

Art Berman
Insight Media Consultant

Start with the natural world. It is populated by creatures that live successfully in given ecological niches. Environmental factors can cause mutations in their genomes. Mutations allow for the possibility of a large range of biological and/or behavioral variation to be produced in subsequent generations of the creatures. Most are failures but sometimes, one of the "evolved" offspring is better suited to compete in an available but different ecological niche.

Likewise, the world of electronics is populated with devices successfully serving the need of specific markets. Business conditions put companies under stress. Engineering is capable of modifying the design of existing devices so as to produce new devices that have a large range of new capabilities and/or configurations. Sometimes a company gets it right and a device is developed that can compete effectively in a new and inadequately served market.

Ok. Ok. I’ll stop but, with this analogy in mind, consider the following bit of news.

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest provider of thin-film transistor LCDs, announced on November 11 that it has developed a 70-inch diagonal, "super bright" LCD digital signage panel - the brightest panel ever mass produced.

Samsung’s new 2000 nit LCD panel is one-third brighter than the previous brightest Digital Information Display (DID) and has been designed to optimally accommodate the tremendous range of lighting conditions affecting outdoor displays.

The new Samsung DID will be available for use in digital signs for transit centers, bus shelters, museums, and for the outside of retail centers, to replace less noticeable poster advertisements. It can also serve as a public communication device to provide visually enhanced emergency messaging, directions, maps or visitor information.

The new Samsung "super bright" DID panel generates four times the brightness of a typical LCD TV today. It comes with a brightness control feature that allows outdoor advertisers to lower the brightness level at night to the level of a conventional HDTV.

Using local dimming LED technology, Samsung’s "super bright" DID LCD panel mitigates its added power consumption by continually adjusting picture brightness in very precise localized increments, thereby avoiding the need to brighten areas that do not require brightening. Local dimming technology permits the new panel to increase its dynamic contrast ratio up to 200,000:1.

The new 70-inch "super bright" display is claimed to incorporate advanced commercial DID system functionality to make it more reliable for 24×7 viewing. In addition, the display provides a Full-HD (1080p) screen resolution and can be used in either a portrait or landscape format.

Samsung will begin sampling its 70-inch, 2000 nit display before year end. Prices have not yet been announced.

Let us close this article by stating the Darwin analogy in terms of the specific news from Samsung. Samsung is always under pressure to generate profits. By the application of engineering resources, one of the company’s LCD products has been redesigned to better meet the needs and address the opportunities available in the outdoor digital signage marketplace. The instructive perspective referred to earlier and drawn from the Samsung analogy is that one path to entrepreneurial success in the display industry is through successfully evolving existing products and technologies.