Hampshire, UK – 30th April 2012: A new report from Juniper Research finds that future mobile augmented reality and location based services will be powered by over 4 billion MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) sensor devices including accelerometer, gyroscopes, magnetometers and others such as pressure, humidity & temperature sensors. These inertial or motion sensors accounted for the majority of the MEMS device market volume and have already become standard and ‘must-have’ features in almost every mobile devices including smartphones and tablets.

The new Juniper report ‘MEMS in Mobile’ identified that as these MEMS sensors are expected to be integrated in mobile devices increasingly over the forecast period, they will become an important differentiator for mobile device manufacturers in enabling different capabilities and functionalities.

MEMs Prices to Decline

The report found that the unit prices for MEMS devices would decrease rapidly over the next few years until reaching a lowest possible price point over the medium term. In order to achieve this however Vendors need to have guaranteed volumes in order to commit to cost and price reductions, creating a ‘chicken and egg’ situation in some newer areas.

Report author Nitin Bhas observes: “MEMS sensors, especially accelerometers and gyroscopes have experienced a dramatic reduction in price over the past few years. Increasingly Vendors need to create or add value to their products by incorporating more functions into a single MEMS device, thereby further reducing size, complexity, and cost”. This will help to negate the expected flattening revenues towards the end of the five year forecast period.

The Billion Dollar Opportunity

Other findings identify the revenue opportunities available in the mobile sector from sensors, including microphones and RF components:

• Annual revenues generated by MEMS devices built into mobile phones including sensors, audio, displays and RF will exceed $6 billion by 2016
• MEMS Sensor devices will witness a declining revenue share in the market (reaching 60% in 2016), as other categories including Audio & RF begin to contribute towards the total

The ‘MEMS the Word in Mobile' whitepaper is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the full report.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.