PHOENIX — Mobile devices will not realize their full potential unless the display industry develops a new generation of "mobile-friendly" displays, according to Karl McGoldrick, chief executive of Philips subsidiary Polymer Vision NV

Delivering the keynote speech at the Flexible Displays and Microelectronics Conference here Tuesday (Feb. 7), McGoldrick said that growing demand for mobile phones and other portable devices are dictating that displays combine thinness, light weight, ruggedness, low power consumption, high resolution, sunlight readability and low cost.

Screen size was the primary shortcoming of current displays, according to McGoldrick. He noted that while measurable gains are being made in pixel density and average color depth, mobile phone screens continue to move slowly up in size from 1.5 to 2 inches, limiting the amount of content that can be displayed.

McGoldrick called for flexible display developers to address the deficiencies by accelerating product development. "We need to focus on getting products to market to get the industry off the ground," he said.

Quoting market researcher iSuppli Corp., McGoldrick said the mobile phone market was expected to grow from roughly 800 million in 2005 to 850 million in 2006. It could reach 1 billion by 2010. He added that the population of mobile-equipped workers will continue to boom, fueling demand for mobile displays.

In an interview, McGoldrick said the flexible display industry was focused on resolving technical issues rather than getting products to market first and resolving problems in the process.

The former Intel executive said the flexible display sector should to take lessons from chip industry, which continues to move rapidly toward new process technologies as it unveils new processors.

For example, McGoldrick said using roll-to-roll manufacturing technology for flexible displays has diverted attention from delivering products faster. "Let's use standard manufacturing techniques to get products to market," McGoldrick said.

Philips has demonstrated a roll-up display for a pocket e-Reader. The company is reportedly developing a 5-inch, 320 x 240-pixel rollup display using E-Ink’s electrophoretic technology for delivery by 2007.