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LCD's also have bad points—difficulty in displaying true blacks, pixel refresh rates that are ordinary and as energy-friendly as they are, they're still inefficient; with about 90 per cent of the light they produce getting wasted.

So the boffins over at Microsoft research have managed to invent something called ‘telescopic pixel' -- a microminiature reflecting telescope in which the focus controls the amount of light passing through. With a theoretical light efficiency of 75 per cent, the telescopic pixel is much more energy-efficient, and its faster switching time enables a single pixel to serve R, G and B functions.

Basically it works by having each pixel made into a tiny doughnut-shaped mirror and an even tinier disc-shaped one.
The mirrors move when they need to let light through, as opposed to the liquid crystals that twist and untwist to in an LCD.
As the light passes through fewer materials, the telescopic display doesn't need a backlight as bright as an LCD's, thereby saving energy.

The mirrors are designed to be more nimble than crystals, thus improving reaction time.

And the design is supposed to be simpler, meaning, so if this technology ever enters mass production, telescopic TVs might well end up being cheaper than LCD sets.

So maybe Microsoft one day could become the inventor of new display hardware, a killer app which should boost profits and negate the need for all that new research into developing new and better versions of desktop software.