Democrat & Chronicle: On the latest conference call Kodak's CEO Antonio Perez said Kodak believes that the sensor project could begin paying dividends soon. The company has been distributing its CMOS sensors for evaluation and has racked up $100 million of "design wins," in which a manufacturer chooses a particular product design over a competitor's.
The $100 million will not necessarily all translate into revenue, Perez said, "but I am trying to give you a sense of where we are ... we are building a portfolio of design wins with which I am very happy."
Theodore Franceschi, chief development officer and co-CEO at New Scale, said that in his discussions with handset manufacturers, he hasn't sensed a groundswell of demand for Kodak's sensor technology. But he quickly noted that the company does have a competitive strength in providing the imaging know-how for the sensors to produce better-quality images.
Analysts say that sales of camera phones are on their way to topping 1 billion a year by late 2008.
The scent of opportunity has also attracted a small Victor startup company with pioneering technology in providing miniaturized motors that can power zoom lenses or auto focus functions in camera phones. That's New Scale Technologies, which is working with Tamron Co. Ltd., a leading maker of precision optics based in Japan. Tamron is licensing New Scale's technology for use in Tamron's optical imaging assemblies, which include digital still cameras, camcorders and mobile phone cameras.
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