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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (40451)	12/4/2000 10:11:34 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

PC Camera Market Expands Rapidly in Post-PC Era December 4, 2000 (TAIPEI) -- PC cameras have recently emerged as a major consumer electronics product in the so-called "post PC era." Global demand for PC cameras is estimated at more than a million units a month. However, industry analysts predict that the global market scale for these products might further expand to more than 12 million units early next year, to surpass the earlier forecast of 5 million units. Industry analysts note that support from original equipment manufacturer (OEM) firms and system manufacturers have slashed the production costs of PC cameras, and many are sold together with computer cases. Following the increasing acceptance of the product, the global PC camera market is expected to enjoy a compound annual growth rate of 50 percent over the next few years. Upstream industries for key components such as complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensors and processing chips also have picked up as a result of this boom. U.S.-based Conexant System Inc. announced it had developed ICs for PC cameras, and also developed production capacity for eight-in. wafers for CMOS sensors. It aims to become one of the world's top three suppliers by the end of 2001. In view of this thriving market, Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd. of Taiwan is expected to boost output of its image-processing microchips from a million units last year to three million this year. Other local makers, including Elecvision Inc. and Pixart Imaging Quality, are aiming to adopt CMOS sensors from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) in a bid to produce image-sensing devices locally, to supply the market. (Commercial Times, Taiwan)