Joe, If there were a less expensive way to convert a low end phone to touchscreen, we would see it. The conversion is easy, especially since Neonode has already made this type of phone. It simply needs updating to today's look. Mark my words, Neon will get a piece of this market...How much and for how long, I don't know. Ultimately, technologies do change and advance, and ir touch will need to stay current and relevent.
In the US, phones are heavily subsidized by phone companies via 2 year agreements. In other countries, especially those less affluent, these lower end and feature phones are very cost and feature sensitive. (i.e....People buy the most phone for their money) I fully expect that if all other features are the same, most people would prefer a touch phone for the same price.
I have read that Samsung is working on their own proprietary way of providing a low cost touch phone, but there are a lot of companies in this market place, and most don't have their own proprietary solution. This is where Neon will come into play...imho. These companies will need a low cost touch product to compete with Samsung or they will perish...imo
Remember, the e-reader market will mature at an estimated 50 million units sold per year. The low end/feature phone is currently at 1 billion units per year. This market growth is slowed by the smart phone, but it is still growing. A 5% market share in this market is 50 million units, or over 5 times the number of e-readers currently containing Neonode. (I beleive that they recently announced selling their 10 millionth unit). Add to this a 5% market share for the smart phones, currently at 600 million units per year (to convert them to e-readers) for another 30 million units.
By the way, using Neonode's solution to convert low end phones to touch phones gives the purchasing company the extra benefit of using "slide to unlock" without worry of patent issues with Apple (since NEON owns the patent).
