Nichia is not public, so I'm not surprised that you haven't seen this information before. I was told by Shuji Nakamura in the summer of 1996 that his company would do $100M in 1996, and closer to $200M in 1997. Dr. Nakamura doesn't need to boast.
Independently, Strategies Unlimited, a consultancy covering optoelectronics, has estimated $100M for Nichia's GaN LED revenue in 1997, a great deal less than Nakamura actually claims that they would do. I don't think there is any use arguing about numbers nobody but Nichia knows, but it is clear from the order of magnitude that Nichia is the market leader with a few times more revenue than Cree.
Nichia is also shipping prototype GaN lasers for DVD and anticipates volume shipments in 1999. I don't think anyone believes that any other company will be first to market with GaN lasers. As a rule, Nichia has been 2-3 years ahead of the competition in LEDs, and they have about a 2 year advantage in lasers, based on where the competition is today, versus when they were there. |
