For people in the technology world, bigger does not usually mean better. Instead, smaller packages are the expected results from investment and improvements. Computers and consoles have been subjected to skimming down and now projectors are also being produced on a smaller scale.

Electronic gadgets are continually advancing and becoming increasingly sophisticated. Whilst LCD TV screens are breaking boundaries with growing sizes and higher resolutions, other elements are shrinking. Flat screen TVs are becoming even slimmer and many other products are also shrinking in size.

The most notable example of miniaturisation in recent times would probably be in the portable computer market. Thanks to the manufacturer Asus, laptops have been complimented by netbooks. Although these are not yet quite as powerful as standard laptops, netbooks are growing in popularity for their simplicity. They perform their primary functions extremely well, enabling users to surf the web efficiently and use basic word processing software and such. The added portability is a bonus even if the loss of functionality and power is a bit of a turn off. Desktop computers have also been influenced by miniaturisation. Acer has already managed to successfully shrink the PC, packing in as much power into them as their standard equivalents. These min machines also double up as living room media centres too.

Another example of a product getting smaller can be seen with games consoles. Sony appeared to start this trend by remodelling their original PlayStation design for the re-launch of the PSOne. This continued with subsequent Sony consoles as the hugely successful PlayStation 2 also reappeared in a thinner format towards the end of its lifecycle. It’s fair to assume that the PlayStation 3 will also eventually become smaller as development continues to be invested in it. Portable consoles have also been given this treatment, again Sony changing their PSP for a marginally smaller and lighter version. Nintendo have also given their DS console a similar treatment too.

Projectors are also reducing in size. Optoma has produced a truly outstanding product in the Pico pocket projector. Roughly the size of a modern day mobile phone, this small projector is capable of beaming images from media devices at up to a maximum of 60 inches, roughly 1.5m. The size may seem small in comparison to normal sized projectors, but to be able to render a display of that size is hugely impressive for the size of the projector. The technology involved in making these work is truly incredible. Via a miniature USB connection, you will be able to project images and videos from a mobile phone or video player.

Storage media also hasn’t escaped this progression either. SD cards and Sony’s Memory Sticks both now come in much smaller sizes. These were developed almost out of necessity as smaller devices required expandable memory such as mobile phones and cameras. Again, cramming the full size functionality into a much smaller space requires a great deal of time and effort.

The progress made in technology is amazing in itself. The fact that manufacturers are able to both increase functionality, yet decrease the space in which they’re placed is on another level. In today’s society, advancements will continue to be made and it is anticipated that they will also be getting smaller too.