Because acclerometers, enable smartphones like the BlackBerry Storm, iPhone and Palm Pre, sense rotation and therefore automatically rotate the screen they are expected to appear in one-third of mobile phones
shipped next year, according to iSuppli Corp.
While few
consumers know what accelerometers are, they do know that when they
turn their iPhones to the side, their screens automatically adjust from
portrait to landscape view, or that when they shake their handsets they
can roll a pair of virtual dice in a game of chance. With their
capability to detect and measure motion, accelerometers are the
critical enablers of these features, which are an essential element of
what makes these smart phones so popular. These capabilities now are
spreading beyond smart phones to other types of handsets."
Beyond
game play and screen orientation, the most popular uses for 3-axis MEMS
accelerometer motion sensors in phones include power management and
shake modes for control of tracks in music phones, context awareness
and pedometers. iSuppli's teardown analysis of the iPhone 3G S revealed the use of a
3-axis MEMS accelerometer from STMicroelectronics. Beyond the features
mentioned above, the STMicroelectronics part works with the new
iPhone's digital compass to orient maps to whatever direction a user is
facing.
In the teardown of the Palm Pre, iSuppli identified a Kionix Inc. MEMS accelerometer and inclinometer.
In the top mobile-phone OEMs, 38 percent of new Nokia
handsets platforms have integrated motion-sensing accelerometers since
January. Sony Ericsson had the highest penetration of accelerometers,
with 18 out of 19 new phones models introduced this year. Samsung and
LG also are offering new phones with 3-axis accelerometers.
iSuppli
annually tracks the features of more than 1,000 mobile phones from 32
manufacturers-accounting for 99 percent of total cell phone shipments.
Since January 1, of the several hundred phones already introduced, 18.3
percent of the models integrated an accelerometer. iSuppli expects the
penetration of accelerometers in new models to rise in the second half
of 2009.
Partly because of the rapid rise in accelerometer adoption,
as well as the use of other MEMS, the market for microelectromechanical
sensors for mobile phones is expected to more than triple from 2008 to
2013. Global revenue from sales of MEMS for mobile phones will rise to
$1.6 billion in 2013, up from $460.9 million in 2008.
Beyond
accelerometers, other MEMS devices already used in mobile phones
include microphones, BAW duplexers and filters, MEMS autofocus
actuators, pressure sensors and even MEMS pico-projectors. MEMS
gyroscopes will join the fray in early 2010.
To
learn more about this topic, see iSuppli's latest MEMS report,
entitled: Consumer MEMS Markets Hold Promise Despite Global Downturn.