Big things in Phones that didn't live up to the hype.

An interesting article. And some of the things mentioned did seem silly even at the time. Most interesting here is the commentary about the quality of the projector. The projector phones mentioned had things going against them in a big way. Poor resolution and focus wheel requirement. 

The Motorola Instashare seems to be getting some traction, and it still has poor resolution and a very touchy focus wheel.

Smart Cast hasn't been released yet. -- And Microvision has the ability to release a really good projector.

As far as not having any use... well, every phone has a camera -- to capture images. Projectors are for sharing images - and people like that a lot more than capturing them.

TechRadar -- More at the source.

1. Projector phones

Notable examples: Samsung Galaxy Beam and Galaxy Beam 2, Lenovo Smart Cast

This is possibly the best example of something that was made because it could be, not because it should be. How many people really want a sub-par projector bolted on the side of their phone?

OK, Powerpoint Pete would probably be happy not to have to take a laptop to his dull sales presentations, but the rest of us?

Projector phones came about because pico (ie, tiny) projectors were suddenly possible, so of course someone had to put one in a phone, in case that was the magic bullet that killed the iPhone.

Spoiler: it wasn’t.

When the inexplicable sequel to the first Galaxy Beam came out, a pico projector expert told us: “It's a bit of fun - when people first see pico projector phones, they say ‘Wow! That's really cool!’."

But the novelty wears off quickly – in fact, as soon as they see that they're not actually any good".

Nonetheless, they do reappear occasionally, usually in China (they’re making projector smartwatches now too).

The most promising reinvention of this tech was the Lenovo Smart Cast in 2015, which projected a touchscreen - in other words, you could actually interact with the projected image to play a virtual piano and other such gimmicks.

But until the projector quality improves and someone actually thinks of a use for these things, it looks like the writing’s on the wall for the poor old projector phone.