It's too soon for a pico projector in the iPhone

DigiTimes (via MacRumors) reports that Taiwanese firm Foxlink (a subsidiary of Apple's iPhone manufacturing partner Foxconn) is currently developing micro projectors for use in mobile phones. The salacious part of the report (linkbait?) is that Apple is named as one of the companies expected to launch devices with built-in projectors later this year.

International brand vendors, including Nokia, Samsung Electronics and Apple, reportedly all plan to launch handsets with built-in micro projectors by the end of this year, indicated the sources, adding that Foxlink is likely to benefit from the emerging trend due to its strong business relationships with Nokia and Apple.

The new generation of micro projectors (also called pico projectors) would allow the iPhone and iPod touch to project video directly onto an external surface like a screen or wall.

Pico projector technology while certainly compelling is still in its infancy and it would be difficult for Apple justify the considerable heft that a projector would add to the iPhone -- and that's not saying anything about the additional battery drain.

I'm calling "no way" on this one as it's simply too soon.