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THE COMPETITION TouchTop Technologies, Inc. competes with
professional research organizations, leading display technology producers and many others attempting to break into the display technology industry. Although other alternatives to AMLCD exist, none have proven
their manufacturability, scientific credibility, or commercial viability. Even the most promising alternative to AMLCD technology, that is the Field Emission Display, only offers a 33% savings in production costs.
TouchTop's LEDCD is designed to be manufactured by existing AMLCD facilities resulting in production savings of over 85%.The most immediate competition to TouchTop Technologies Company, Inc. is the
Infinite Gain Corporation of Irvine, CA and Angle Tech. of San Pedro, CA. The Infinite Gain Corporation has the best-developed Field Emission Display Process (FED) in the industry. This company was founded
in 1990 and its FED boasts viewing angles of up to 170 degrees, and a contrast ratio of 100 to 1. This compares with TouchTop's contrast ratio of 20,000 to 1 and viewing angle of 170 degrees.
Infinite Gain Corporation's customers include Sharpe, Toshibaa, NEEC, and Hoshidenn. Infinite Gain's license and royalty agreements are negotiated on an individual basis. Each client yields $24.25 Million
per year in revenue on average. A summary of competitor profiles follows:
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Growth |
Revenue |
Lic./Royt. |
Service |
Gross |
G. Margin |
Competitor Name |
Rate |
In Millions |
% of Rev. |
% of Rev. |
Margin % |
Lic./Royt. |
Infinite Gain |
110% |
$97.00 |
85.01% |
14.99% |
96.52% |
98.21% |
Angle Tech. |
86% |
$35.11 |
70.12% |
29.88% |
97.33% |
93.40% |
Vision |
12% |
$200.02 |
88.01% |
11.99% |
97.03% |
99.13% |
TouchTop Proj. 99' |
180% |
$59.60 |
85.26% |
14.74% |
95.93% |
99.99% |
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G. Margin |
Operating |
% Sales |
% R&D |
%G&A |
Year |
Competitor Name |
Service |
Margin % |
Mktg. Exp. |
Expense |
Expense |
Founded |
Infinite Gain |
49.54% |
57.21% |
13.72% |
15.55% |
10.95% |
1989 |
Angle Tech. |
61.09% |
64.05% |
9.10% |
14.44% |
9.74% |
1992 |
Vision |
45.08% |
45.13% |
21.70% |
21.80% |
7.30% |
1990 |
TouchTop Proj. 99' |
72.00% |
70.00% |
19.30% |
4.89% |
4.61% |
1996 |
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P/E |
Ticker |
Major |
Avg. Rev. |
Head- |
Rev. |
Competitor Name |
Ratio |
Symbol |
Customers |
Per Cust. |
Count |
Per EE |
Infinite Gain |
50 |
INFG |
4 |
$24.25M |
130 |
$746K |
Angle Tech. |
33 |
AGTC |
3 |
$11.70M |
30 |
$1.17M |
Vision |
29 |
VSNT |
15 |
$13.33M |
220 |
$909K |
TouchTop Proj. 99' |
N/A |
N/A |
3 |
$19.88M |
71 |
$839K |
TouchTop Technologies, Inc. |
Infinite Gain's management team is led by Dr. William Sharpes. Dr. Sharpes has written
numerous texts on display technology and founded the company in 1990 with 4 key patented technologies he developed. The company has developed strong ties with its
customers and managed to grow revenues by over 100% in 1997. Angle Tech is essentially the research arm of Optrexe International. Although the firm is
a public company, nearly 90% of its sales are made to its majority shareholder, Optrexe. The most significant accomplishment of Optrexe over the past several years has been
gains made in the area of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Displays. Ferroelectric Displays, FLCDs, are liquid crystals that maintain their charge after the
electric field is turned off. One of the advantages of this technology is that power consumption in portable devices is significantly reduced. However, controlling contrast in
FLCD's has consistently required counterproductive supporting technologies. All evidence suggests that the cost of manufacturing FLDC's is greater than, or equal to, the cost of producing current AMLCD's. Vision, Inc. is the least threatening of TouchTop's most direct competitors. Although the company licenses technology to virtually all of the top ten LCD producers, its patents are
primarily based on methods of improving existing Passive Matrix Displays. The company uses various "twisting" techniques to enhance both resolution and viewing angle.
Although LCD producers acknowledge that Passive Matrix Displays have a limited future, Vision's innovative improvements to this technology benefit producers in two
ways. First, firms can extend the life cycle of Passive LCD's with Vision's twisting techniques. Secondly, by using existing production facilities and mature product
components, manufacturers can target the price conscious segments of the display market. Despite these strengths, the consensus opinion in the scientific community is that
Vision's days are numbered and the company is essentially a cash cow. |
