Pacific Media Associates (PMA), a global market information firm, has reported that the worldwide market for pico and pocket projectors grew 125 percent in third-quarter 2010 compared with the same period last year.

This high-growth category includes all models that deliver <500 lm of brightness.

Of the five segments that comprise this category, the pico Companion segment, which includes all stand-alone battery-powered models, grew from ~45,000 units in the third quarter of 2009 to more than 100,000 in the same quarter of 2010, making it the largest segment. TI’s (Texas Instruments) DLP technology led in this segment during Q3, with 51 percent of the units and 53 percent of the revenues.

In the pico Companion segment, several major manufacturers recently introduced bright (25 to 50 lm) products with SVGA (super video graphics array) or wide VGA resolution and good connectivity and battery life. Even more importantly, new household-name brands such as Philips and Toshiba will be shipping products in time for the upcoming holiday season, and Acer and Samsung recently started shipping their pico projectors.

“Further illustrating the industry’s coming of age is that some of the earliest entrants into the market — for example, 3M, Aiptek and Optoma — are now pushing into related categories,” Coggshall said. “These include products with built-in projectors such as camcorders (3M and Aiptek), digital cameras (GE and Nikon), and an iPod sound dock (Optoma).”