"An Insider's Look At PDA Displays And The Industry As A Whole" - BargainPDA.com

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=1662&showComments=true' target='_blank'>http://www.bargainpda.com/default.a...owComments=true</a><br /><br /></div>"Last week Sharp announced a new screen that is essentially viewable from almost every angle. A week or so before that announcement they released news that a mono speaker is now able to be integrated into their screens. As a result of all this news, we decided to dig a little deeper into the unknown realm of mobile displays. The results of our work should both surprise and disturb you.<br /><br />When you buy a PDA one of the most important factors, if not the most important, in the buying decision is screen quality. I can’t tell you how many times a review I’ve written has hinged on screen brightness, clarity, etc. In fact, the screen can be so important that some people won’t buy a device with questionable screen quality, like the Sony Clie TG50 that suffers from shadows in the backlight. Or how about the HP iPAQ h1945 that suffers from the yellow screen effect when viewed at certain angles? The list can go on…"

[shawnc]

If this is true it is very disturbing.

[AhuhX]

It explains a hell of a lot though...

Why some users get 194x screens more "yellow" than others....

Why some 221x users complain about "wavy lines" and a "grid" while others do not...

etc etc

What about the FCC docs though? For that new Toshiba it had the screen type listed there. Does that mean the manufacturer can change it before it hits production despite what it says in that manual?

[Prevost]

I think this is the plain truth.

Some months ago, I found myself searching the web to solve some Graffiti performance issues in my Palm m515. Someone in a forum told me to replace digitizer (I thought it was bad since it was cloudy - the cloud are actually scratches) and gave me a link to a site giving directions about dissecting an m515.

Guess what? The site detailed there were TWO different manufacturers for the Palm m515's displays: Sony and Sharp! and then showed how to recognize each upon screen connector's position.

Then I learnt the screens where NOT made by Palm...and also the funny fact that probably Sony is providing the acclaimed transflective screens Palms are sporting nowadays while giving themselves displays that are inferior in comparison. :mrgreen:

Market laws are pissing us off...

At the bottom line, if these new Sharp displays are coming into market, either Sharp will need to give licensed their technology to accomplish market laws (or should we say, market pressure?), or the PDA's equipped with 'em (if any ever) will be very "exclusive", so prohibitively expensive.

I'm not sure if this tech breakthrough is what, say, PPC needs in order to improve user's experience. I think this is not for a future as immediate as "first half of next year".

[quidproquo]

Other industries do this as well.....

Take the auto market for instance.... Ford and Mazda are "in bed" together. The Mazda B2000 Pickup is practically a Ford Ranger. If you look at the engine in the Mazda B2000 pick up truck, it says Ford right on it!

Also, another example would be a Mercury Grand Marquis and a Ford Crown Victoria. These are the same cars solds under a different brand.

This is all a way for manufacturers to save on costs and speed up production/shipping, etc.

[dh]

Other industries do this as well.....

Take the auto market for instance.... Ford and Mazda are "in bed" together. The Mazda B2000 Pickup is practically a Ford Ranger. If you look at the engine in the Mazda B2000 pick up truck, it says Ford right on it!

Also, another example would be a Mercury Grand Marquis and a Ford Crown Victoria. These are the same cars solds under a different brand.

This is all a way for manufacturers to save on costs and speed up production/shipping, etc.
Good point, although not quite the same.

Ford, Mazda, Mercury, Lincoln, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo (did I miss any?) are all the same company so there is bound to be a lot of items and designs in common between them.

Yes, I did miss one - Aston Martin, although an Aston probably doesn't share many parts with a Ford Focus.

[mr_Ray]

I pretty much expected that to be the case, actually. Having put a lot of research into buying my laptop a year or two ago, I found out the exact same thing there with two or more manufacturers for the screens, certainly on some of the models I looked at.
I guess that I subconciously assumed the same for PPC screens, and I guess I was right.

For any non-branded part of electronics kit you'll always have the chance of this, for either continuity of supply like in this case, or cost reasons. While that XScale CPU is always going to be coming from Intel, than "32MB ROM" could well be coming from supplier A this week, and supplier B next week.


IMO the real issue here isn't the dual suppliers - that's overall good for customer and manufactuer - but when components of differing quality are put into the same product, and this can happen from the same supplier almost as well as in this situation.
People are 100% correct to complain about bad screens, but mostly it seems silly to complain about diversified supply.

[sebringal]

Other industries do this as well.....

Take the auto market for instance.... Ford and Mazda are "in bed" together. The Mazda B2000 Pickup is practically a Ford Ranger. If you look at the engine in the Mazda B2000 pick up truck, it says Ford right on it!

Also, another example would be a Mercury Grand Marquis and a Ford Crown Victoria. These are the same cars solds under a different brand.

This is all a way for manufacturers to save on costs and speed up production/shipping, etc.

I drive a good example of this sort of thing (not that I mind...I really LOVE my car!)---- my Chrysler Sebring 2-door hardtop is Mitsubishi underneath! But the 2-door convertibles and the 4-door hardtops are Chrysler underneath! It has to do with which plant makes the car, as I understand it.

(I'm not usually so well-versed automotively, but I researched this car a lot before I bought it.)

[boldbidder]

Other industries do this as well.....

Take the auto market for instance.... Ford and Mazda are "in bed" together. The Mazda B2000 Pickup is practically a Ford Ranger. If you look at the engine in the Mazda B2000 pick up truck, it says Ford right on it!

Also, another example would be a Mercury Grand Marquis and a Ford Crown Victoria. These are the same cars solds under a different brand.

This is all a way for manufacturers to save on costs and speed up production/shipping, etc.

I drive a good example of this sort of thing (not that I mind...I really LOVE my car!)---- my Chrysler Sebring 2-door hardtop is Mitsubishi underneath! But the 2-door convertibles and the 4-door hardtops are Chrysler underneath! It has to do with which plant makes the car, as I understand it.

(I'm not usually so well-versed automotively, but I researched this car a lot before I bought it.)

Your example is actually fairly unique in the automotive world from what I understand. In the instance of the example stated above your post, all of the mentioned companies had the same parent, in the case of Daimler-Chrysler and Mitsubishi the situation is a little different. The Mitsubishi plant that was built in the US is state of the art completely automated facility of which Chrylser (before the merger) contributed a great deal of the capital for the facility. In return Mitsu was obligated to lend their Eclipse platform to Chrysler, that's how the Sebring came to be.

[shindullin]

The car analogy is not so off base. All the big auto manufacturers use the same handfull of huge suppliers to provide parts etc for their cars. To ensure that their supply lines are not disturbed they get the same parts from different suppliers. BrakesRus in Texas will make brake parts for Honda's Accord and some of those same supplies will be provided to Ford for their Explorer's brakes. Honda will get the same brake parts from BrakeUniverse over in Korea while Ford diversifies w suppliers from Mexico. This isn't a big deal as the standards all the suppliers have to meet in order to sell the product are extremely high and extremely uniform. Sometimes the supplier will only provide parts of the part and other times the entire part, MOMO brakes anyone? The difference here seems to be that we are getting screens, parts made from DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGIES as well as to DIFFERENT SPECIFICATIONS. No-one would care if the screens from all the various suppliers were just as good. The problem here is first one of quality control and second one of using entirely different technologies and branding it as the same thing, 'TFT' or what have you.
The manufactures should dump the sucky suppliers or force them to make better products. They should also be more specific about the technology being used so we know if the brakes are MOMO disk brakes with HUGE calipers and cross venting that can stop on a dime or AC DELCO drums that can barely stop a festiva. aka an Omron screen with new front light technology that's as good or better than backlighting or a TFT front light that barely works like the one on my Genio.
As for diversified suppliers, the earthquake in Kyoto reminded everyone that it's critical to diversify suppliers at least geographically. If a crucial part is only made in one place and there's a disaster there, it will also spell disaster for your product bc you won't be able to make it anymore.