Do you remember a time when cell phones were just phones?
It’s almost hard to contemplate today, but a few minutes watching any movie made in the mid to late 1990s will quickly jog your memory as to what cellular technology used to look like.
Since then, phones have become cameras, instant messengers, wireless Internet devices, music and movie libraries, televisions, and, most recently…
High-definition projectors.
The next generation of smartphones will feature an optional projector — small enough not to interrupt the form of any of today’s standard smartphone bodies.
And yet these projectors, powered by lasers instead of the more traditional LED, can fill an entire room with bright, crisp, colorful light emanating from the palm of your hand.
The world’s leading developer of smartphone-compatible projectors, MicroVision, Inc., is in the process of bringing to market the world’s first fully functional smartphone-projector hybrid — complete with the SmartCast system, a new user interface that pushes the boundaries of science fiction-caliber technical elegance.
Keyboards on the Wall
With SmartCast, a smartphone doesn’t just project an image or a video onto a surface — it actually transforms that surface into an interactive window capable of reading hand gestures and registering touch.
This effectively turns any wall into a giant smartphone face with full, seamless interfacing.
MicroVision leads the field in this technology, but it is a startlingly small company.
It holds 233 patents relevant to micro-projectors and augmented reality — the technology pioneered in the SmartCast user interface.
That’s more than any other company… more than Google, Samsung, and Microsoft put together.
But the more impressive figure is 3.5. That’s the average number of patents per employee.
Despite its dominance in the field, MicroVision has only 66 employees and trades in the very modest $3 range for a total market capitalization of $150 million.
Companies that small with advantages that huge typically don’t stay there for too long.
If projection technology comes anywhere near the popularity and rate of adoption we saw with cameras, those patents will be worth billions in royalties.
Camera-equipped smartphones have gone up in sales by a factor of five, from 200 million to 1 billion units sold annually between 2009 and 2013.
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From Magical to Commonplace
With even one-tenth market penetration into the next generation of this Swiss Army Knife of digital devices, MicroVision would have to expand by a factor of ten or more just to keep up with the demand — or, more likely, would be acquired by a company that would gladly cough up a few billion just to avoid paying royalties for years to come.
To get a bit of an indication of how much value is already in this relatively tiny company, consider that Google spent $500 million last year alone developing a similar system through its AR subsidiary Magic Leap.
That’s more than three times the total market value of MicroVision, Inc. and all of its patents.
MicroVision is headquartered just down the street from one of its more diversified competitors, Microsoft, in Redmond, Washington — where it’s been since its founding in 1993.
12-month targets have been set by various analysts at a relatively modest $3.50 — which makes today’s $3 shares feel pretty reasonable.
Numbers aside, however, MicroVision will have its day in the sun because it does one thing that all successful tech companies must do to make a name: disrupt the market.
That’s precisely what this soon-to-be common add-on to your beloved smartphone represents.
Fortune favors the bold,
Alex Koyfman
Check us out on YouTube!His flagship service, Microcap Insider, provides market-beating insights into some of the fastest moving, highest profit-potential companies available for public trading on the U.S. and Canadian exchanges. With more than 5 years of track record to back it up, Microcap Insider is the choice for the growth-minded investor. Alex contributes his thoughts and insights regularly to Wealth Daily. To learn more about Alex, click here.
