Portrait Viewing Catches Like Wildfire

37% of LCD Monitor Sales in Q2 are Pivot Enabled

PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 24, 1998--Portrait Displays, Inc. (PDI) today announced an exponential growth rate in sales of LCD monitors featuring its Pivot technology, rising from 7.3% in the first quarter of 1998 to 37% in the second quarter.

LCD monitors equipped with Pivot(R) Software allow users to view documents in both Landscape (horizontal) and Portrait (vertical) mode for full-page viewing.

The growth, tracked by DisplaySearch, a leading market research and consulting firm for the advanced display industry, is reported in its annual LCD Monitor Strategy Report which became available for purchase last week.

It's no real surprise. Since Portrait Displays began licensing its Pivot(R) technology to LCD monitor manufacturers last summer, leading companies like NEC, ViewSonic, ADI, MAG, and AKIA have released Pivot Enabled(tm) LCD models.

``With sales of 11 million LCD monitors projected for 2003, we're especially pleased with the upward trend in market share for those monitors that use our Pivot(R) technology,'' said Michael James, president and CEO of Portrait Displays. ``The ability to view documents in portrait or full page display mode is clearly a functionality that's important to users.''

``People purchasing LCDs first compare the image,'' said Paul Martin, president of TFT.net Corporation and editor-in-chief of The TFC Review, an e-mail newsletter about the advanced display industry. ``Once they've narrowed the selection to the top three choices, the image rotation capability becomes very, very important. It's an important differentiating factor, particularly with the radical price cuts we project for LCD monitors in general.''

Originally founded in 1993 as a ``technology spin-off'' from Radius, Inc., Portrait Displays is today the sole developer and owner of the Pivot(R) technology which enables LCD monitors to provide Portrait (full page vertical) as well as traditional Landscape (horizontal) view.

Through licensing agreements with Portrait Displays, Pivot(R) Software is provided by today's leading LCD monitor manufacturers.

Other PDI licensees include a number of vertical applications ranging from kiosks, touch screens, voting machines, pen-based computers, cockpit display devices, and handheld computing devices. The company is headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif. and can be reached at 925/227-2700 or by visiting its website: www.portrait.com.

Contact:

     Portrait Displays, Inc.
     Mikel Estrin, 925/227-2700
     [email protected]

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Thanks Tim and Anna!

Thanks Kinetic!