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Sunday, July 31, 2016

Thousands of retail stores....

I'm always hesitant about articles like this, but they're appearing more and more. The degree to which they're legitimate remains to be seen.


A Bing Translation

As the title says, and full General in counties and cities building thousands projector phone retail stores across the country, fenwenbuqu to others.

Current smartphones become more and more the same. Despite the fingerprint recognition, 3Dtouch, dual camera, surface technology highlights appear on the screen, but is hard to change the sign of the decadence of the potential.
We went to watch a giant screen film, play a game LOL, edit text, shows a copy of the PPT had to go to a cinema, open a laptop, find a conference room has a projector. And the portable phone is have ability to handle these operations, but limit the screen closed and operations experience.
Smartphone development more and more TV, PC, trend micro-laser projection technology is the key.
Breaking framework for mobile, mobile phone, PC, giant-screen combines unparalleled full using first generation MEMS laser projector phone.

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Some insight about how PicoP Works

There's a color illusion first, than then something about a different display technology.  (the color thing is very interesting too.)

It explains how a single laser dot (what you're seeing with the raster-scan from PicoP) can make a full image.

Friday, July 29, 2016

Force Touch

A very unique feature of the Qualper phone is the home button. Many share holders got to see it at the annual stockholder's meeting.

On the Qualper phone, the home button is in the middle of a smooth area below the screen. Hold your finger on it, it lights up and gives some "haptic" feedback. It vibrates to let you know you did something.

It's a very unique thing -- that just happened to be found along with PicoP in the phone -- another very unique feature. 

So, somewhere to look for PicoP might be with this other unique feature. 

The closer we get to the reveal, the more accurate the leaks typically get. This one is close to bankable at this point. It's come up repeatedly, and the details about it haven't changed.

MacDailyNews
BGR

“According to a new report from Macotakara — a site with an impressive track record regarding Apple rumors — the home button on Apple’s next-gen iPhone will sit flush with the screen and will not move when pressed,” Heisler reports. “Instead, Apple is planning to incorporate a series of sensors underneath the home button that will trigger a slight vibration when pressed. This, in turn, will provide users with the illusion that the iPhone 7 home button is a mechanical button.”

“The report further adds that the sensors underneath the iPhone 7 home button will be pressure sensitive, thereby paving the way for Apple to incorporate 3D Touch functionality on the screen as well as via the home button itself,” Heisler reports. “Notably, Apple has already implemented this type of technology on its MacBook line via a feature it calls Force Touch.”

Long vision vs the rear-view mirror

If you have driven across the plains toward Colorado you have experienced this. For a very long time all you can see is flat and corn. You are making the drive because you want to see the mountains -- and for a day it seems like you're never going to get there.

When you can first see the mountains, you keep driving -- and it seems like you're not getting any closer, like you're never going to get there. They seem very distant for hours -- even though you know you're driving right at them at 65 miles per hour.

Occasionally, once even pretty close to the mountains, you'll go behind some trees, or into a dip behind one of the foothills and the view of the mountains goes away entirely, and the despair of not reaching the mountains grows -- even if you know they're right there.

Then when you get close to the first mountain, you can't even see it any more. The driver may assume that you know this. He has been paying attention all the time. Of course you can see it you're ON it. So, the driver talks about the next mountain. That's what happened yesterday.

That first mountain is right there, it's so obvious you can't miss it. That next mountain is a couple of hours away. But they are kids in the back of the car. They have to pee, they're uncomfortable, and they thought dad was talking about this mountain, and now he's talking about that one, which is another two hours away. 

They are on the mountain they can't see it  as a mountain anymore. They won't until they're on top of it. The kids in the back of the car hear two more hours and start crying. 

Dad is saying WTF! we're here! And there's even better stuff over there! All the kids heard was about two more hours in the car. And one of the kids just woke up, looked at the rear view mirror and saw a hundred miles of the great plains. That kid really lost it.

That scene in the car is about what happened yesterday after the conference call.

Listen to it again 

PicoP

PicoP is something the company's plan was to work on until it could be a self-sustaining item and fund the other projects the company had on the shelf. This has been said a number of time over the years. PicoP is there. 

Do not doubt what you see in the Qualper phone. A number of shareholders held it and saw it in action at the annual stockholder's meeting. I would love to be the guy building buzz about such a product. If I were a troll, I'd get one of those, slap an Apple logo on it, tour pubs in tech press hangouts and turn the rumor mill to completely mental. If you've found this blog you know that that is exactly what would happen. But the company has strict NDA's and they are following them.

SONY probably has strict NDAs that they are following which probably require them to not say anything even to Microvision.

It's there its great, and it's ready to go. We also know that it's going to be upgraded, it will get smaller and better and brighter.

But where are the orders?!

We keep hearing this, and it's a good question. Where are the orders? If you've ever called to order something that you need and you're told, "things are in short supply and the lead time is long" then you probably pre-order. 

(If you do, the company can't report it as income until it ships the stuff and can't take a deposit until it starts making your stuff, and this is the "normal course of business" so it can't announce it -- especially if there are strict NDA's.)

If the lead time is short though, and you don't want people to know what you're up to, you'll probably make your prototypes, announce your product, and then order your components. 

We have been assured there are no supply chain problems, and that huge quantities can be made quickly.

Sony is working through its backlog -- yet we haven't seen products out there! Where are the products? Probably a hell of a lot of prototype products and small runs for testing. Sony may be slow, but they're REALLY good at things.

If you don't want anyone to know what you're up to, how many do you order then? None. If I can ask for it today and get it tomorrow, why would I order it a week in advance?

The design phase takes a long time, product cycles are strange and seem random to the people outside the fold -- but when production kicks on in consumer electronics they can make 60 million copies of something and sell them in a quarter. Foxconn, who now has PicoP in a little Robot,  does it all the time.

The Next Mountain

There's been a LOT of media buzz about the next mountain Microvision is scheduled to climb. Augmented Reality. So it makes sense to talk about it. 

Of course, as soon as the time it's going to take to be firmly on that mountain was mentioned, that was all people heard. Next year?!?! 2018?? Yes, for the next thing. The next big thing after the big thing we just did is a couple of years out. The company's timing on this one is PERFECT, we're early enough that those companies know they won't need to worry about the display.

Microvision's display solution for augmented reality is fantastic. 

All the stuff that people are raving about -- ODG, Vuzix, Cast AR, Hololens -- have displays that while remarkable -- are terrible next to Microvision's 15 year old Nomad system. 

The field of view is small for all of them, and Microvision can cure that. With existing technology. To be fair most of those companies working AR are hard at work on software and the human interface. How to control a computer you wear and placement of information in the real world are difficult problems.

****************

Yesterday's call was great, but I also cringed a little when I heard time references for two years out. But that wasn't a reference to what we've been waiting for eagerly for the last few years -- that was very much a reference to the next mountain. Clearly, based on the reaction in the stock that is the ONLY thing some people heard, they didn't even pay attention to WHAT was in two years.

PicoP? We're one signature away from what we've been waiting for for a long time. Given the awesomeness of the Qualper phone, I expect that to happen any day now. 

If you've seen it, put yourself in the shoes of any decision maker at any phone company who is desperate for new features. 

A friend got hold of me yesterday. We don't talk nearly enough. He sent a text that said "Buying mvis."

Thursday, July 28, 2016

New Major Regional Client from Sony (updating)

Some Message board discussion going on here: reddit

I don't know anything, but my guess would be MicroMax. They've been on the Lidar for a while. They are the best selling mobile phone in India.

Their Slogan: Nuts. Guts. Glory.  (sounds like they're MicroVision investors already.)

I don't have anything specific that points me to MicroMax for this deal, except that it makes sense. Sony and MicroMax play nicely together, it's a HUGE market, it would be exceptionally well served by PicoP -- and has a market audience that would be extremely receptive to it.

MicroMax also makes a LOT of phones, and a lot of new designs for phones.

I have been convinced that they are producing a lot of phones in relatively small lots (40+ new phones annually?)  They are the world's 10th largest smartphone maker.

Micromax Informatics Limited is one of the leading consumer electronics company in India, and the 10th largest mobile phone player in the world. Over the past decade, Micromax has pioneered the democratisation of technology in India - by offering affordable innovations through their product offerings and removing barriers for large scale adoption of advanced technologies. Micromax is currently the 2nd largest smartphone company in India. Micromax is a brand which is close to the heart of the youth, and celebrates the vibrancies of life and empowerment. MicroMax

Watch the video below to know why it is such an incredibly ripe market for PicoP

India Focused Smartphone




Check out the MicroMax products

MicroMax from here last year

Sony agreement with MicroMax for Movie distribution

Sony's tiny TV tuner being field tested in Mumbai, India

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Binge-on vs Go90

Why are these mobile companies competing so hard for consumers of video? 

Android Authority

Today T-Mobile’s controversial CEO John Legere took his video blog to announce that T-Mobile has added 16 new partners to their streaming service Binge On. For those not in the know, Binge On is a program that allows users to stream music and video content over their LTE network connection without that data use contributing toward their monthly allotment. 
The addition of these new partners pushes the number of video services available for Binge On over the 100 mark. T-Mobile claims that this service has “sent shockwaves through the mobile industry” by enabling consumers to stream unprecedented amounts of content without concern for data overages.

Nintendo NX

That sounds interesting. 

How do you do a portable console with its own display and detachable controllers?  It won't be too long until we find out. 

BGR
According to a report from Eurogamer, several sources have now confirmed that Nintendo’s next-gen NX will be a portable console with its own display and detachable controllers. NX owners will also be able to connect the system to their televisions if they prefer to play their games on the big screen.

***
As for when we’ll see the device, the report points to a September reveal. Nintendo was “unable to comment on the various rumours and speculations circulating,” but it appears that the cat is finally out of the bag.

Nintendo’s NX is currently slated to launch in March 2017.



GameInformer Business Insider

Augmented Reality -- UPDATED

There's a LOT of stuff out now suddenly about Augmented Reality. It was off the public's radar until Pokemon Go, and now there's a lot of buzz.

It's only a matter of time before those digging hard about it discover the great position Microvision has in the field.

Check out the Definition from Apple Insider -- "A layer of digital information overlaid onto the physical world" is exactly what PicoP does.

So, when we go portable -- to play augmented reality games with portable devices -- things like this can be done. ( I still haven't found the one article that was posted recently that caught my eye.) 


Apple Insider

Distilled to its most basic elements, augmented reality can be described as [a] layer of digital information overlaid onto the physical world, like the camera and screen interface used in Pokémon Go. More immersive technology relies on specialized transparent displays, though these exotic solutions are still in their infancy and as such come at a high price. A number of tech companies are investing in the space, including Google's Glass product and Facebook's Oculus Rift platform.


From Eos Article

When visiting CES I showed the PicoPro to the Eos Folks and they REALLY like the projector. 

Convince and Convert 



PatentVue




Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Marni Walden Behind Verizon's Acquisition of Yahoo

More content focus by telecom companies -- short video clips, and entertainment that doesn't count against your data cap. 

Why?


ReCode  (More at the source)

These days, though, Walden is in charge of new business opportunities for Verizon. Some of those are things that involve the cellular business, such as connected cars, but much of Walden’s work has been in areas new to both her and Verizon.

“People are surprised about Verizon getting into the content space,” Walden told Recode last year. “I think that’s really important to bring eyeballs and audience. Our media business will play a much more significant role in the Verizon of the future.”

It hasn’t all been easy going for Verizon, particularly its efforts in video programming. The company launched a mobile video service known as Go90 last year, but it remains a relative nonentity.

Rather than boasting well-known shows, big sports deals or original programming, Go90 has relied on short clips it hopes will appeal to the YouTube generation. In that vein, Verizon recently hired former YouTube executive Ivana Kirkbride to be Go90’s chief content officer.

Probably the biggest thing going for Go90 is that it can undercut rivals on price. Not only is there no price for subscribing, but for Verizon Wireless customers, using the service doesn’t even count against their data cap.

PicoP as Cellphone attachment spectrometer

On some of the stock discussion boards there is a member who often posts interesting patents that relate to Microvision. This is one. 


Patent on Google Patents

  • In one or more embodiments, the laser intensity model for injection into the LSS coupled to the iPhone is that shown in FIG. 2 (wherein the intensity pattern is calculated using Tracepro optical ray trace software). However, the model of FIG. 3 could also be used. In one or more embodiments, the laser ring spectrometer geometry shown in FIG. 6A-6E can be designed to fit into Microvision° Laser Picoprojector (LPP) architecture for interface to mobile devices.
  • [0082] 
    The LPP can be modified to connect directly to a portable device or smart phone. FIG. 9 shows an apparatus/package 900 comprising a modified pico projector 902 (e.g., modified picoP projector), wherein the modified pico projector 902 condenses a detector (e.g., diode detector such as Vigo model PV-4TE-10.6) 1, one or more lasers 2 (e.g., three lasers such as quantum cascade lasers, QCLs such as Alpes Lasers, models sbcw5701, sbcw2922 (1280.3 cm−1), sbcw3055 (2205.4 cm−1), and (1043.9 cm−1), supporting optics bus 4, a laser controller, external interface (e.g., for communicating with the smart phone 904), and power source, into a handheld package 902. Thus, the modified picoprojector can comprise components 124, laser controller, external interface, and power source. The package 902 can further comprise the lasers (e.g., QCL) wired into the PicoP projector's amplifier and supporting electronics for the diode detector. The apparatus 900 further comprises ring cavity/multipass cell 906 (e.g., ring cavity 600) and LSS integration fixture 3 for attaching/coupling/mechanically interfacing the ring cavity/multipass cell 906 to the modified Pico projector 900.

BENZINGA! -- Interested in Virtual Reality? Here are the purest plays

Nice article in BENZINGA about investing in Virtual Reality. (Of course, that's not all Microvision has going on, but this is the right kind of attention.)


Benzinga   More at the source

Virtual reality and augmented reality are two of the fastest growing industries in the areas of electronic gaming, entertainment, medical services and military applications. Just look at the success of Nintendo Co., Ltd NTDOY's Pokémon Go.
Despite this, there are a few smaller companies where VR can bring a substantial amount of money to the bottom line.

Immersion Corporation IMMR is working on force feedback, the creation of the sense of touch to the user through the use of vibrations or motions. Immersion is one of the leaders in this technology, also known as kinesthetic communication and haptic technology. The stock has a nosebleed high trailing P/E earnings ratio of 901, but a more reasonable forward P/E of 26. The company is debt free and has $2.11 in cash per share.

Kopin Corporation KOPN develops, makes and markets virtual and augmented reality gaming, training, and simulation products. The company is currently generating negative earnings but is debt free with $1.42 in cash per share.


Microvision Inc. MVIS makes PicoP scanning technology for three-dimensional sensing and image capture. This company, like Kopin, also generates negative earnings, but is also debt free. It has 22 cents in cash per share. On the positive side, Microvision's quarterly revenues jumped 311% year over year.


These three stocks are all small caps, so they should be viewed relatively speculatively. But they could provide under the radar opportunities for investors interested looking to make VR and AR gains a reality.

Monday, July 25, 2016

Harry Potter Go

I predict that someday, millions of people will be playing games in the dark on portable devices.

PicoP can be a very good stepping stone between playing AR on your phone, and playing on a headset... it would certainly allow for more person to person interaction - because sharing would be a given.

Augmented reality games will be even more fun when things appear on the real world. That's possible with infinite focus. Given the popularity of the Pokemon game, expanding on the concept is inevitable.

While Augmented Reality headsets are going to be really expensive as they get started, PicoP is already priced to be in reach.

It's only the beginning.

Newsy  <---- Watch the video here. 

Inquisitr    More at the source

Harry Potter GO, a conceptualized game, may very well be on its way to the mobile gaming arena if Niantic Labs seriously contemplates the petition put forth by the innumerable Harry Potter fans.

According to Cinema Blend, die-hard fans of Harry Potter have proposed that Niantic Labs, the creators of the breakaway hit mobile game Pokémon GO, develop a mobile game based on the Harry Potter movies and which draws inspiration from the newly released Pokémon GO game.


Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/3341586/thousands-petition-for-harry-potter-go-a-harry-potter-version-of-pokemon-go/#zOr5eIB2hGC1jMY3.99

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Gary Kaltbaum --

Gary Kaltbaum is an investor. He runs a fund. He has a radio show, and has a website -- and you can find him on Twitter.

On this past Friday's show Gary mentioned that he's going to dedicate time every week to "finding the next big mobile app" If you can find the next big mobile App, you can get in front of Pokemon Go, or Facebook, or Linkedin. 

I thought I'd try to give him a hand finding the next big thing.

Gary's Website  *   Gary's Twitter Feed   *   Friday's Show (7/22/16)

There are many next big applications that are on the horizon, but figuring out which one of them is really going to be a hit is kind of difficult. (Who could have predicted Angry Birds, or Candy Crush or Pokemon Go?)

A way to get that mobile content on a big screen? Without having to lug a big screen around with you? That's golden. Throw in a hefty dose of Augmented Reality IP & 3D laser scanning technology for good measure, you could have a winner.

Microvision is in the early stages of generating revenue -- but it's coming -- and they have their technology embedded in a phone that stockholders have seen and watched in action -- it works. 

It has been very frustrating for shareholders for a LONG time, but mass production has begun.

Why Microvision? Because this: The picture below is being projected with Micrcvsion's projector... the phone that is the source (Samsung S4 is at the bottom of the picture... ) BIG screen from a small device.



And in a phone below.




Sony is producing components with their tech.

SONY Laser Projector Module Page
Foxconn just bought Sharp -- which is using their tech.




Disney may well be in the fold as well.


In my opinion we're a single announcement away from a crazy rise.

Check it out. Less risk than trying to play the next software fad.





Thursday, July 21, 2016

Insight -- Masayoshi Son, ARM Holdings

I find that this provides insight about how certain people and companies think.


Japan News Masayoshi Son  -- More at the source.


ARM traces its history back to the mid-1980s, when a group of software engineers decided to design their own microprocessor for the Acorn BBC Micro, a device that introduced a generation of British school children to computing.

Muller said the rise of rival computers based on Intel chips dealt Acorn a fatal blow, but despite the failure Apple had seen something it liked in the technology, which it wanted to use in its Newton handheld device.

With Apple’s backing, ARM was spun out of Acorn in 1990.

The Newton failed, but ARM persevered with its designs and was chosen by another company set to become a global leader — Nokia — for a new mobile phone in the mid-1990s.

“Because Nokia was then becoming the No. 1 mobile phone company, other people knew they’d selected ARM to use in mobile phones, and that drove a lot of adoption from other players,” Muller said.

Nokia chose ARM’s processor designs because they required less power than those from rivals, making them ideal for a mobile device powered by a battery.

An early decision to let its customers innovate using ARM’s core technology was key to its success, Muller said, giving partners such as Apple, Samsung or Qualcomm the freedom to develop their own chips while using ARM’s common architecture that had become the industry standard.

The company and analysts had said that partnership model had made ARM less vulnerable to a takeover because an acquisition by the likes of Apple or Intel could put off its other partners.

SoftBank, a telecommunications and internet company with no presence in semiconductors, largely sidesteps that problem.

Market Size and Money -- Apple and Pokemon

There's every bit as much to be made from better displays as there is to be made from Pokeballs, trust me on this one.


Reuters - Apple to make Billions from Pokemon

Apple Inc stands to rake in $3 billion in revenue from the Pokemon Go craze in the next one to two years as gamers buy "PokeCoins" from its app store, brokerage Needham & Co said.

Pokemon Go, the augmented reality game from Japan's Nintendo Co Ltd, can be downloaded for free but iPhone users can use PokeCoins to buy additional features.

A pack of 100 PokeCoins costs 99 cents in Apple's app store, but the price can go up as much as $99.99 for a pack of 14,500. (apple.co/29j1uDa)

"We believe Apple keeps 30 percent of Pokemon Go's revenue spent on iOS devices, suggesting upside to earnings," Needham analyst Laura Martin wrote in a client note on Wednesday.

Nintendo NX

Another thing to watch more closely. 

This is good noise. ( But keep it basic! )

Been watching Pokemon Go since last year around here, because of Microvision's interest and position in augmented reality. Pokemon Go is also connected to Nintendo. 

The Nintendo NX has been interesting for a long time (following this thing for a few years now.) It is interesting because since the conversation about it began, there was talk of blurring the lines between "console" and "mobile." -- The way I see it, that involves primarily the screen you play on -- and the ONLY way to blur that line is with projection.

It's now clear, that people outside Nintendo are starting to see the Nintendo NX. It's interesting timing, coinciding with the release of Pokemon Go.

SoftBank's Masayoshi Son could have gotten more from a ten-billion investment here than a 32 Billion investment in ARMH. When it gets to the internet of things, everything tiny that needs a screen is going to need MVIS.

From TechCrunch   (more at the source)

The Nintendo NX is one of the most long-teased console releases I can ever remember, especially as an officially acknowledged thing. Speaking on his company’s quarterly earnings conference call yesterday (via IGN), Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot shared some tantalizing impressions about the NX: It’s “really great,” and it should “help the industry continue to grow,” particularly by bringing “more casual players back” into the console gaming fold.

* * *

Guillemot’s comments don’t reveal what the console will look like, but do give us clues about who it’s intended to impress: casual players. Nintendo’s biggest console success, the original Wii, did well primarily because it struck a chord with a non-traditional console gaming audience, thanks to accessible gameplay and unique use of motion controls for participatory play.
The Wii U had the potential to repeat, but since the heydays of the original Wii, the attention of the casual game player has shifted — to mobile. I wouldn’t read too much into Guillemot’s vague statement, but the rumors suggesting Nintendo’s device combines portability with living room chops make a lot of sense if indeed the idea is to recapture the company’s casual appeal.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Ghost Busters at Madame Tussauds - New York

How do those cool Ghost-blasting guns work? 

Reddit poster found this one. 

Lezab powered Ghostbusters gun




Fortune -- Ghostbusters at Madame Tussauds


The virtual reality installation stems from a partnership between Madame Tussauds, Sony (whose Columbia Pictures is behind the Ghostbusters movie), and immersive entertainment company The Void, which specializes in creating virtual reality projects. 

Masayoshi Son, Japanese executives and Risk

Masayoshi Son has been busy for a long time in tech, but really got some attention when going for ARM holdings this week.

Worth digging around about him. It seems to me that if there ever were a guy who would enthusiastically jump into Microvision, it would be this guy.

He's a risk-taker in risk-averse Japan & Risk averse big business. 

He's of Korean ancestry in Japan. This is quite significant in Japan - even though most outside of Japan don't realize it. He's not really on the inside in Japan -- but not really on the outside -- and the restraining parts of the Japanese culture aren't restraining him. (I'm sure I'll get a note correcting this if I've misstated any of this. DF?)

He understands Japan and the "weird" in Japan. Check out the ad.

What is here is a guy who knows capital. A guy who is willing to risk -- and sometimes lose - which is really important. If it's a sure thing, there isn't any risk, but precious little upside as well. We also have a guy who studies the future and gets it right. 

Microvision is a significant part of the future of portable computing, entertainment & the internet of things. 

Those industries have a huge problem - getting large displays from small devices -- and Microvision is the answer to that problem.

From Financial Times
Critically, say analysts, Mr Son embraces risk with skin in the game: a 19.2 per cent stake in SoftBank that is both stick and carrot to his bravura dealmaking. By contrast, the rest of corporate Japan — increasingly led by a generation of salaryman chief executives who hold minuscule quantities of stock and have risen to their positions by avoiding risk wherever possible — does not do very much of that.

Some larger, cash-rich Japanese companies, following pressure from shareholders, have started to become more proactive in looking abroad for long-term growth and a higher return on equity. They logged a record ¥10tn of outbound M&A deals in 2015. Even so, it was an improvement rather than an outright transformation. Those outbound deals were fairly conservative, led by the insurance and banking sectors looking for large, bolt-on businesses in dependable, developed parts of the world. The scale of the deals — modest by global standards — demonstrated a reluctance on the part of acquirers fundamentally to reshape themselves.


While companies such as Intel Corp. design and manufacture chips, ARM is strictly a designer. It charges licensing fees and per-chip royalties to other companies that use its schematics. Customers such as Apple Inc., Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics Co. began flocking in the past decade to ARM-based chips because they drew less power than competing chips from the likes of Intel, which made high-performance but energy-guzzling processors.



"A fresh acquisition is not what the market wants from SoftBank," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Asset Management.
"It's Mr. Son's style to keep expanding, but isn't he stretching too much?"
Investors fret the purchase of ARM, Japan's largest ever outbound deal, may be too much for SoftBank, still in the throes of turning around U.S. carrier Sprint <S.N> and tackling a $112 billion debt pile.
Others take the longer view.
"There is little synergy with SoftBank's existing businesses, but it makes sense if we look at ARM's future potential," said Tomoaki Kawasaki, senior analyst at IwaiCosmo Securities Co.
"Mr. Son is prioritizing investment for the future over shoring up the balance sheet. It's very Mr. Son-like."
A self-made entrepreneur whom one investment banker described as thinking "in decades", Son, of Korean descent, has long been something of an outsider in corporate Japan.
He wears the somber suits of Japan's salarymen but is an outspoken sometimes outrageous voice, with a celebrity status and 2.5 million followers on Twitter.
Son said he sealed the deal in just two weeks with a handful of advisers. These include Jeffrey Sine, co-founder of niche U.S. merchant bank Raine, who has advised Son for years.
Japan’s favorite TV ad series features a family who sit around bickering and occasionally mentioning the merits of the tariffs offered by mobile network SoftBank.



So far, so ordinary. Mobile operators love to feature regular people and trumpet the joy of communication with bland phrases about being ‘better connected’ and having a ‘world that revolves around you’.

But in the Softbank commercials, the grown up Japanese daughter has a brother who is apparently an American black man. And their father is, well, a white dog.

No one in the ads ever remarks on the weirdness of this.

It’s all very droll, slightly weird and joyfully eccentric.

And wildly popular.
Indeed, Japan’s CM Research Center, which conducts TV ad recall surveys says SoftBank’s ‘Otosan’ ads (Otosan is Japanese for father) have topped most of its polls for the last five years — and earned the firm’s ‘Brand of the Year’ prize every year from 2007 to 2011.

***

Son loved to buy and sell, throwing money into 600 technology companies, including GeoCities, Ziff-Davis Publishing and the Comdex computer show. Some of these bets went disastrously wrong, such as Kingston Technologies, which lost Softbank $1 billion.

Others did better.

Ziff-Davis’s chief executive, Eric Hippeau, introduced Son to a struggling small company called Yahoo, which wanted $5 million to develop its search engine tech. Famously, Masayoshi Son offered $100 million. Yahoo founder Jerry Yang replied that they didn’t need that much. To which Son countered: “Everyone needs $100 million.”

Thus, Softbank owned more than one-third of Yahoo when it went public in April 1996.

And Masayoshi Son was similarly prescient about Alibaba, offering a big sum to its CEO Jack Ma when he hadn’t even asked for it. As a result, Softbank got a third of Alibaba – a stake worth $75bn on the day the Chinese giant IPOd last month.

SoftBank’s $20 million investment in Alibaba back in 2000 probably ranks as one of the greatest ever.


Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Nike & Apple File Augmented Reality Patents


Investor's Business Daily

Meanwhile, Apple filed a patent application, published Thursday, for "synchronized, interactive augmented reality displays for multifunction devices."

Like "Pokemon Go," the tech could be used to create a 3D map of an area, overlaid with information. But Apple has a number of real-world applications in mind that go beyond capturing animated monsters.

"For example, a car mechanic can hold (the AR-enabled device) over a car engine and an outline identifying parts and providing excerpts from a repair manual or schematics can be displayed in the live video to assist the mechanic in repairing the engine," outlined the Apple patent filing.

Doctors might also use it to superimpose medical information over a live video of a patient, or an X-ray or MRI could overlay the video so medical professionals could better diagnose an issue.


Apple is reportedly knee-deep in virtual reality and augmented reality development. Patently Apple, a site devoted to Apple's patent filings, has been tracking its augmented reality-related patents for years.

Monday, July 18, 2016

The BIG Picture

Occasionally it's time to review the big picture. Traffic to this blog is up in a very interesting way, and there are new countries of note on the traffic radar. 

When it comes down to it, most of what is posted about Microvision is noise. I end up in a lot of discussions about Microvision with friends and other investors, and I find myself often backing up to the big picture. Too much focus on details leads to giving details more importance than they deserve.


The BIG Picture -- all you need to know

  • Most of the people on earth are carrying smartphones and they are getting increasingly powerful. -- they can deliver more data than can be viewed on the small screen that fits in the pocket.
  • Everyone who has a smart phone would like the physical size of it to be smaller
  •  Everyone who has a smart phone would like the screen to be bigger

Where are we now?
  • PicoP is embeddable in a usable smart phone as demonstrated by Qualper.
    • Many stockholders have now seen and held this.
  • The Qualper phone is a quick sale. 
  • There is no way that the Qualper solution isn't visible to large OEMS.
  • There are no impediments to mass production.
  • Brighter and smaller is in the works.
  • Only a tiny number of people in the world are aware of PicoP 
    • Huge investing opportunity
  • Look how fast Pokemon Go went from (apparently) zero to madness.
Potential Market:
  • Last year 1,400,000,000 smartphones were sold world wide.
  • 1% penetration of that market would be 14,000,000 unit sales. 
  • Smartphones are only part of the potential for MicroVision -- this ignores
    • Signage
    • Embedded in Tablet Computers
    • Pocket computers
    • Auto
    • Augmented Reality
    • 3D laser scanning
Many people who own this stock are FULLY invested -- which results in a lack of upward pressure. Some of us have more invested than "reasonable" people would. I am among those.

...everything else is noise.

Huge Acquisition in Telecom

An exceptionally bright guy is buying up interesting areas in telecom and one of them is a PicoP maker.  --- another something to watch. 



Japan's Softbank to acquire ARM holdings?


Japan's Softbank has agreed to acquire ARM Holdings, the giant U.K. semiconductor firm that supplies part of the chip design used in Apple iPhones, in a deal worth more than $32 billion, the companies announced on Monday. 
ARM, the largest London-listed tech company by market value, is a major presence in mobile processing, with its processor and graphics technology used by Samsung, Huawei, and Apple in their in-house microchips.
Components based on technology licensed by ARM are found in the vast majority of the world's smartphones, and the Cambridge-based group has branched into other connected devices as smartphone growth slows.
As part of its bid to bolster its presence in the growing internet of things (IoT) sector, Softbank will pay £17 per share (about $22.50 a share) for ARM, a 43 percent premium on Friday's closing price, in an all-cash deal. ARM shares rallied over 46 percent in early trade on Monday. 
"This is a company I always admired for the last 10 years," Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive of SoftBank, told reporters in London Monday. "This is the company I wanted to make part of Softbank. I am so happy" 
On whether the deal will face opposition, the CEO said the deal will close quickly because Softbank "does not operate any competitive business against ARM. This will be very straightforward"

Connection?   (From this blog)

From February.....

Foxconn seeks investment from SoftBank to boost bid

OSAKA -- Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry reportedly has sounded out SoftBank Group about joining its bid to acquire Sharp, aiming to sweeten the deal by bringing in a Japanese partner and a major buyer of the troubled manufacturer's mainstay smartphones.
     Hon Hai, the contract electronics manufacturer also known as Foxconn, plans to hold a controlling interest in Sharp, with SoftBank seen taking a roughly 10-20% stake. Having SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son himself buy into Sharp directly is likely on the table as well. Foxconn hopes that having the telecom company on board would boost Sharp's smartphone sales, contributing to its recovery.

If you look at these carefully, you don’t think the skull has the most value. The brain is more valuable than the skull. But everybody has a brain. Inside the brain are wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom and knowledge are the most valuable things in the body. I want to be number one in the business of supplying wisdom and knowledge all over Japan. But the knowledge industry is too big, too wide. So we specialize in the PC industry’s knowledge.
Sprint , the fourth largest U.S. wireless carrier, has seen its stock price rise by close to 15% over the last week and by approximately 30% in the last three months, outperforming other large cap wireless names. Below we outline some of the likely reasons for the rally.
  • Developments at Sprint’s majority shareholder Softbank have been a key driver of the stock over the last few days. Earlier this week, SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son said that he would stay on for another five to ten years, instead of retiring in favor of the company’s president Nikesh Arora. Son noted that one of his key priories in his remaining time would be to develop Sprint to its “true potential,” signaling a vote of confidence in the company.