Neonode
Neonode Inc (NASDAQ: NEON) is a publicly traded company, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and established in 2001. The company provides optical sensing solutions for touch, gesture control, and remote sensing. Neonode technology is currently deployed in more than 73 million products and the company holds more than 120 patents worldwide. Neonode’s customer base includes Fortune 500 companies in the consumer electronics, office equipment, medical, avionics, and automotive industries.[2]
| Public | |
| Traded as | NASDAQ: NEON |
| ISIN | US64051M1053  |
| Founded | Sweden (2001)[1] |
| Founders | Magnus Goertz and Thomas Eriksson |
| Headquarters | Stockholm, Sweden |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | |
| Products | N1, N1m and N2 mobile phones, Airbar touchscreen sensor, zForce AIR touch sensors |
| Website | neonode |
Neonode operates in three business areas: HMI Solutions, HMI Products and Remote Sensing Solutions. In HMI Solutions, Neonode offers customized optical touch and gesture control solutions. In HMI Products, Neonode provides plug-and-play sensor modules that enable touch on any surface, in-air touch, and gesture control. In Remote Sensing Solutions, Neonode offers a software platform for driver and cabin monitoring.[3]
History and milestones
Neonode was founded in 2001 as a mobile phone company.
The first mobile phone prototype was launched at the German IT-fair CeBit in March 2002 and yielded quite a bit of attention. Around Christmas the same year, a press conference was held at Fryshuset in Stockholm. The massive attention they received resulted in 20.000 mobile phones being pre-ordered. Using their two patented technologies, zForce and Neno, Neonode AB had developed three mobile phone models: N1, N1m and N2. They all shared a similar design, featuring a large optic touch screen in color.
Neonode AB was responsible for the development and marketing of the mobile phones. The company had about 30 employees and was situated on Biblioteksgatan, close to Stureplan in Stockholm. Production of the phones took place in Malaysia.
In November 2008, the company attempted issue equity, but failed. On December 9, 2008, Neonode declared bankruptcy. The company was immediately started up again by Thomas Eriksson. The business of the parent company Neonode Inc and Neonode Technologies AB, located in Sweden, which is the R&D headquarters, has since been the licensing of the zForce technology.
In 2009, the company released an updated version of the touch-technology zForce (zero force).
In 2010, zForce was awarded the title "Best New Technology of the Year" by the magazine Mobil.
In 2010 and 2011 the company’s technology was incorporated in products in the e-reader segment.
In 2013 the company’s technology was incorporated in products in the printer and automotive segments.
In 2016 the company launched a commercial product, the AirBar touchscreen sensor, that transforms a non-touchscreen laptop into a touchscreen laptop. The AirBar sensor plugs into the laptop via USB.
In 2017 the company introduced a line of plug-and-play sensor modules under the name zForce AIR Sensor Modules. zForce AIR Sensor Modules are sold through Digi-Key.
By 2020, the company’s technology had been incorporated into 73 million products.
Mobile phone products
Neno Neno was Neonodes custom graphical user interface (GUI) controlling the Microsoft Windows CE operating system. Neonode devices ran Neno from a removable Secure Digital card.
N2
- Operating system: Windows CE 6.0 Pro
- Display: 176 × 220 Pixels (Width × Height), 16-bit Colour TFT
- Audio: Stereo 48 kHz playback
- Memory Storage: miniSD / miniSDHC
- Connectivity: GSM Quad band: GSM850,GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900 MHz, Bluetooth, GPRS
- Size: 47×77×14,7 mm (W×H×T)
- Weight: 70g
- Battery: 820mAh
- Imaging: 2 Megapixel Fixed Focus Camera, Still pictures, Video play-back (MPEG, WMV), Video Recording (MPEG-4) (not yet, but planned in further updates)
- Messaging: SMS, Support for long SMS, MMS, Predictive text input, T9 (English, Swedish, German, Dutch, Spanish, Norwegian, French and Greek), Call history (dialed, received and missed calls)
- Audio: Audio player (MP3, WAV, WMA), stereo 48 kHz playback, Custom ring tones (MP3, WAV, WMA), Alarm application
- Entertainment: Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer (web browser), 2 integrated games.
- Third-party software.
- Software development environment.
N1m
- Launched: Q1 2005
- Operating system: Windows CE 5.0 and 4.2
- Display: 176 × 220 Pixels (Width × Height), 16-bit Colour TFT
- Audio: Stereo 48 kHz playback
- Memory storage: SD card up to 2 GB
- Connectivity: GSM Triband: GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900 MHz), USB 1.1
- Size: 88 × 52 × 21 (H × W × D)
- Weight: 94g
- Imaging: Megapixel Camera (1024x1024), Imageviewer, Videoplayer (MPEG 1, MPEG 4, WMV)
- Messaging: Short message service, Support for long SMS, Multimedia Messaging Service, Predictive text input, T9 (English, Swedish, German, Spanish, French and Russian), Call history (dialed, received and missed calls)
- Audio: Audio player (MP3, WAV, WMA), stereo 48 kHz playback, Custom ring tones (MP3, WAV, WMA), Alarm application
- Entertainment: Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer (web browser), Games, third-party software downloadable
- Organiser: Calendar, Tasks, Phonebook with storage capacity of 1000 contacts, Add an individual picture for each contact, Synchronize with your PC using ActiveSync (requires extra software free of charge from Microsoft)
- Miscellaneous: Large touch-screen, On-screen keyboard, Screen saver, Vibrator, Calculator, Updates available at the Neonode website, USB memory functionality, use N1 as portable storage device. A generic positive gesture (slide left to right) and negative gesture (slide right to left) were used consistently through the interface to unlock, go back to home screen, etc.
References
- "Neonode Company Profile". CrunchBase. TechCrunch. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
- SEC. "Neonode Inc. 2019 Annual Report 10-K". SEC.report. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
- "Neonode". Neonode. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
- "Neonode N1m - Full phone specifications". Gsmarena.com. Retrieved 2013-08-19.