Solid Growth Ahead for the Crystal and Oscillator Market -- Market to Hit $4.6 Billion in 2010

Frequency Control Insights (FCI) has released its findings on the crystal and oscillator market which show the market grew 6.5% in 2005 to $3.1 billion.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) May 18, 2006 -- Frequency Control Insights (FCI) has released its findings on the crystal and oscillator market which show the market grew 6.5% in 2005 to $3.1 billion.

Growth in 2005 was lower versus the 12.6% growth in 2004, which can be attributed to lower electronic equipment growth. However, FCI is forecasting solid market growth for crystals and oscillators with the market reaching $4.6 billion in 2010. Growth will be driven by a number of different application areas.

Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillator (TCXO) content in mobile handsets will increase with W-CDMA handset growth and GPS integration into handsets. Growth in wireless connectivity solutions, such as WLAN, Bluetooth, UWB, and ZigBee will increase high-stability MHz crystal usage. In the Personal Computing (PC) sector, Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) are moving to a Serial ATA (SATA) interface requiring the use of MHz crystals, as opposed to Parallel ATA (PATA) which required cheap ceramic resonators. Even in the automotive industry, MHz crystal content is increasing as automobiles integrate more electronics and Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS).

Average Selling Price (ASP) decline will be only 1.7% over the five year forecast period. The usage of higher value crystals and oscillators, such as high-stability, is helping to buoy ASP decline. In addition, a mix shift to more miniature ceramic packages helps as these packages command a premium.

The combined company of Epson Toyocom, after the merger in 2005, claimed the top supplier spot. Market positions for the other top suppliers remained unchanged, with the top ten still holding approximately 75% of the total market.

The market for crystals and oscillators will grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.2% from 2004 through 2009, reaching $3.9 billion.

MEMS resonator technology has finally come out of research and development with the release of a programmable MEMS oscillator from startup company SiTime (April of 2006). SiTime has aggressive plans to compete in the crystal and oscillator market, and there are two other MEMS resonator companies also wanting to roll out product. MEMS resonators and oscillators still need to be proven in high-volume production, but current product capabilities from SiTime look promising. FCI still believes it will take a few years before MEMS resonators and oscillators have any impact on the crystal and oscillator market.

FCI’s results are available in its “Crystal and Oscillator Market Research – H1 2006” report. The report provides a detailed look at the crystal and oscillator market providing forecasts for all major product categories, in addition to supplier market shares.

The full report is available for $2,500. The supplier market share portion only can be purchased for $500.

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