Strategies Unlimited Market Research

Optics.org published some market data by Strategies Unlimited. Some interesting key points are below:

• The image sensor market is continuing to show strong growth with sales expected to increase by 14% to nearly $7 bn (€73.5 bn) by the end of 2007.
• European companies have regained some worldwide market share. In 2006, European-based companies were responsible for about 10% of the worldwide production of image sensors. The market share gain is mostly due to STMicro with its main customer Nokia. On the other hand, Micron with its main customer Motorola lost some market share.
  
• Fabless manufacturers are losing share to competitors that fabricate their chips internally.
• There is no convincing reason why an integrated strategy is fundamentally better than a fabless strategy – it all depends on communication and co-operation between the design team and the fab engineers. Even for integrated suppliers, politics and short-term priorities can overrule good engineering. Other important factors include the wafer sizes used in the fab, the skill of the design team and the strength of the patent portfolio. Either strategy can work well or poorly.