Samsung shows off what it claims are a couple of industry firsts at the 2015 Retail Asia Expo-- transparent and mirror OLED display panels with integrated Intel RealSense technology designed for commercial applications, if with potential consumer use for the future.

The mirror OLED panel finds use as a "virtual necklace" display at the Chow Sang Sang jewelry company, with the combination of mirror display and 3D cameras allowing customers to play with an interactive (or "self-modelling") wardrobe, with hand gestures providing necessary input. The panel also features higher reflectivity (75%) than similar mirror LCDs, high contrast ratios and no need ambient backlighting.

ViewSonic designs a 24’’ Full HD integrated webcam LED monitor around the corporate and personal use of the latest videoconferencing and collaboration solutions.

It’s about time somebody reinvented the desktop monitor. After all, for years, we have insisted upon referring to the desktop screen that enables our computers as a “monitor,” or “display.”  Both words—however, useful-- convey passivity, an inertness of being.

That’s as archaic as referring to digital cinema as “film” or to what you sometimes hear on your smartphone as a “dial tone.”

In a world where 560+ million people use Skype (50% with video on, says Microsoft) and 100 million people use Microsoft Lync to communicate for work (79% of U.S. enterprises currently use or plan to deploy Lync for telephony as it metamorphoses into Skype for Business), the screen on your desktop needs to match up to today’s age of professional (and personal) collaboration.

It can no longer afford to be solely the stolid purveyor of spreadsheets and Word docs… the monitor needs to stop being a wallflower and join in the real conversation-- the new web, video and voice collaboration that defines modern work (as well as social life).

That’s why ViewSonic brings out the VG2437Smc, a 24’’ Full HD integrated webcam LED monitor.

With a 2 megapixel Full HD webcam, integrated echo cancelling microphone, stereo speakers, and advanced SuperClear MVA wide-viewing angle display technology, the VG2437Smc enables desktop video conferencing-- from any desktop PC running the most popular web or video conferencing applications.

It’s designed to be an active enabler of today’s collaborative work, That is, it’s designed —from the initial concept— for use with Microsoft Lync (now Skype for Business), Skype, Google Hangouts, Cisco Jabber and Webex, Citrix Gotomeeting and Viber.

This is not your father’s “monitor” or “display;” this is the eyes and ears and voice of your digital world, the way to convert a desktop PC to a personal web and video conferencing solution. It enables any user to connect to other desktop users, to group conferencing solutions in meeting rooms and to smartphone users.

According to IDC global Q4 2014 PC monitors drop by -4.4% Y-o-Y to reach 34 million units-- a 1.3% improvement over analyst forecasts, as the adoption of lower-price mobile devices eats into the monitor market.

"For consumer-oriented vendors like Samsung and LG the holiday season helped fuel the sector. Shipments were also bolstered by high volumes of renewals for devices still running Windows XP in both the public and private sectors," the analyst says. "Geographically, W. Europe, the 2nd largest regional market in terms of units shipped, experienced year-over-year gain for the fourth consecutive quarter, recording 8.4% growth Q4 2014."

According to Acer the XG270HU gaming monitor uses AMD FreeSync technology and AMD Radeon R-Series GPU support to eliminate screen tearing and stuttering for an "ultra-smooth" gaming experience.

Available in WQHD (2560x1440) resolution, the 27-inch monitor offers 144Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time and an edge-to-edge frameless design to maximize the viewing area. Meanwhile the FreeSync technology syncs the monitor's frames with those of the graphics card to further reducing lag and latency.

Further additions include EyeProtect flicker-less technology and ComfyView glare reduction.