ViewSonic

ViewSonic Corporation
Private
Industry Computer
Founded 1987
Headquarters Brea, California, United States
Key people
 James Chu, Founder, CEO
Products Computer display
Revenue Increase $1.2 billion (2011) USD
Website www.viewsonic.com

ViewSonic Corporation is a manufacturer and provider of visual technology, specifically CRT monitors, liquid crystal displays, projectors, plasma displays, HDTV technology, and mobile products, including Mini and All-in-One PCs and wireless monitors.

The privately held company has approximately $1 billion in worldwide sales annually. ViewSonic's headquarters are located in Brea, California, United States.

History

The company was initially founded as Keypoint Technology Corporation in 1987. In 1990 it launched the ViewSonic line of color computer monitors, and shortly afterwards the company renamed itself after its brand. The founder, chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of ViewSonic is James Chu.[1]

An adult Gouldian Finch

The ViewSonic logo features Gouldian Finches, colorful birds native to Australia.

In the mid-1990s, ViewSonic rose to become one of the top-rated makers of computer CRT monitors, alongside Sony, NEC, MAG Innovision, and Panasonic. ViewSonic soon displaced the rest of these companies to emerge as the largest display manufacturer from America/Japan at the turn of the millennium.

In 2000, ViewSonic acquired the Nokia Display Products' branded business.[2]

In 2005, ViewSonic and Tatung won a British patent lawsuit filed against them by LG Philips in a dispute over which company created technology for rear mounting of LCDs in a mobile PC (U.K. Patent GB2346464B, titled, “portable computer.").[3]

On July 2, 2007, the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $143.8M in an IPO on NASDAQ.[4]

On March 5, 2008, the company filed a withdraw request with the Securities and Exchange Commission saying "terms currently obtainable in the public marketplace are not sufficiently attractive to the Registrant to warrant proceeding with the initial public offering."[5]

Products

A ViewSonic 17-inch LCD monitor.

In 1998, ViewSonic announced that two of its Professional Series monitors achieved TCO '99 certification.[6]

In 2000, ViewSonic partnered with AT&T Corporation to offer Internet appliances integrated with the AT&T WorldNet Service, initially targeting the corporate market. The Internet appliances ranged from standalone i-boxes, integrated LCD and CRT devices, to web phones and wireless web pads. The units were deemed capable of operating on nearly any operating system, including Windows CE, Linux, QNX and VxWorks.[7]

In 2002 ViewSonic announced a 3840 x 2400 WQUXGA, 22.2-inch monitor, VP2290.[8]

ViewSonic was the first manufacturer to bring Smart Display to the market, with the Airpanel V150 in early 2003. This included a 15" 1024×768 LCD, a 400 MHz Intel XScale processor, 32MB ROM, 64MB RAM and 802.11b wireless, and a USB wireless hub for the host PC.

At the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, ViewSonic introduced display products, namely a projector, monitors and an HDTV set, capable of being connected directly to a video iPod.[9]

The ViewSonic LCD monitor range currently includes four product groups, the VA value range, the VG multimedia range, the VX gamer range, and the VP professional range. The two-letter range codes are always used at the start of the product name followed by a number which indicates the diagonal screen size. They also produce the Optiquest line of budget displays. Viewsonic Singapore unveiled their latest projectors series, the PJD7 that is designed for education and commercial use, and Pro8 which is ideal for businesses and homes.[10]

On May 31, 2011, the ViewPad 7x debuted at the Computex computer show in Taipei, Taiwan, Pocket-Lint reported, being a follow-up rather than a replacement to ViewSonic's existing ViewPad 7 tablet, which runs Android 2.2, aka Froyo.[11]

Cliff Asness, head of the hedge fund firm AQR Capital, praised the quality of ViewSonic monitors in a Bloomberg interview. After throwing his ViewSonic monitor to the ground three times without breaking it, he concluded that the company must either be building "good computer screens or my punch isn’t what it used to be."[12]

Main competitors

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://goldsea.com/RTR/Chujames/chujames.html
  2. ↑ ViewSonic Corporation Acquires Nokia Display Products' Branded Business (January 17, 2000) - Accessed: July 3, 2007
  3. ↑ F. Moltzen, Edward (2005-12-13). "ViewSonic Prevails In Patent Dispute". ChannelWeb Network (CMP Media LLC). Retrieved 2007-07-07.
  4. ↑ ViewSonic Registers for IPO, Forbes. Access date: 3-July-2007.
  5. ↑ , Securities and Exchange Commission. Access date: 8-March-2008-09.
  6. ↑ "WORLD FIRST AS VIEWSONIC MONITORS ACHIEVE TCO '99". prnewswire.co.uk (PR Newswire Europe Ltd.). 1998-10-29. Retrieved 2007-07-07.
  7. ↑ "Viewsonic Corporation unveils state-of-the-art internet appliances - announces strategic relationship with AT&T WorldNet Service". prnewswire.co.uk (PR Newswire Europe Ltd.). 2000-08-01. Retrieved 2007-07-07.
  8. ↑ ViewSonic announcemnt from 3840 x 2400 QUXGA, 22.2-inch monitor (VP2290b)
  9. ↑ Burke, Steven (2007-01-09). "CES 2007: ViewSonic Drives iPod Integration". ChannelWeb Network (CMP Media LLC). Retrieved 2007-07-07.
  10. ↑ http://vr-zone.com/articles/viewsonic-singapore-launches-pjd7-and-pro8-series-projectors/10869.html
  11. ↑ Lance Whitney, CNET. "Report: ViewSonic to win 7-inch Honeycomb tablet race." May 13, 2011. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
  12. ↑ "The Quant Who Won't Shut Up". Bloomberg L.P. October 7, 2010.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to ViewSonic.