Indicating reduced profitability in the video display market, Fujitsu (OTC: FJTSY) has announced its departure from the production of high end plasma televisions. This news comes via ars technica and is indicative of a major trending pattern. Much is astir among Japanese electronics manufacturers as companies there take a turn for the lean and are engaged in forming manufacturing power alliances.

Much is being affected by the near total domination of liquid crystal display technology within a tightening, yet deepening image display sector. Take further evidence of change by considering Brian White's post about the exit from rear projection television by Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE). The LCD field is currently saturated and for it's improvement it needs to thin out.

Strides are still being made in regard to making LCD displays thinner and engineers are working on reducing power consumption. Little can be done however, to improve LCD profitability with so many companies cranking out cheap displays. What's needed now is for some of the remaining display manufacturers to aggressively address some considerable quality issues.

Gary Sattler does not knowingly hold financial interest in the companies he blogs about.

They're calling it e-paper and it seems to be the coming thing. Imagine having one thin flexible sheet upon which you could display most anything you wish to watch or read. Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) is said to have developed a razor thin, flexible display utilizing their organic thin-film transistor technology and organic electroluminescent display. Other companies are working on similar technologies, but Sony is laying claim to the display with the greatest flexibility. This blog on CFA's space gives some interesting snippets regarding Sony' position in the race to bring flexible display technology into the consumer realm.

Once again we are looking at an impending technological advancement that could have significant beneficial effects. I'm sure that ergonomic consumer electronics engineers are watching this scenario with glee. Imagine a Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry that will slip into your back pocket and fit the curve of your butt cheek, or think about a PC that you could wear as a wrist band all day. When developers merge flexible display technology with something like Motorola's (NYSE: MOT) self-powering display technology (and they will), we're going to be treated to mobile electronics that only a few of us ever imagined were possible.

Until now, battery life was the single most troublesome aspect of mobile communication / entertainment devices. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is looking to change that. The Green Options Blog reports that Motorola engineer Zili Li has devised a strategy that promises to make those video displays on mobile devices self-powering, and the science has more than just promise. In the past, the nature of those mobile video screens has made them impervious to the level of light rays that would allow them to act as solar collectors. Motorola's answer , proposed by engineer Li, is to create LCD displays that only filter selected colors and wavelengths while allowing enough light energy through so that the display may gather and harness that energy. The best part is that Motorola has the patent (US 7206044) already in hand.

Motorola gives no indication when the technology might reach the consumer, but Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has already built a working 200-pixel-square prototype of a monochrome self-powering display. According to its inventor Zoran Radivojevic, the key to this device is the use of titanium dioxide nanoparticles both to generate the image and to harvest power from light. For now it seems that the Nokia concept remains "bimetric" in that it is indicated that the nanoparticles simply change from black to light -- black when power is applied from the internal power system and light when energy is being collected. In consideration of the fact that all our current digital displays are descendants of what were once simple bimetric displays (remember Pong?), it is no stretch of the imagination to think that very soon full-color digital displays will be gathering their own energy as well as powering entire devices.

We're sorry, Mr. Energizer Bunny, but keep your day job!