Sparked by Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android devices, global shipments of cell phone motion sensors, such as accelerometers, compasses, gyroscopes and pressure sensors, are expected to see a fivefold increase by 2014, a recent research by iSuppli Corp. reveals.According to the industry analyst firm, driven by growing consumer demand for smartphones and feature phones with support for motion command and navigation applications, motion sensor adoption is set to reach 2.2 billion units in 2014, up from 435.9 million in 2009. Revenue will increase from $316 million to slightly over $1 billion during this period.
Among various kinds of motion sensors, accelerometers will play the most important role in cell phones. By 2014, as much as 65 percent of all handsets will be equipped with the feature, up from 2 percent in 2007 and 28 percent in 2009.
Accelerometers enhance user interfaces by allowing users to tap, shake or orient the device for specified commands. For example, if you turn your phone to its side when browsing the web, the screen will automatically change from portrait to landscape view. By shaking your phone, you can roll a dice in a game. Other than orientation detection and gameplay, they are also widely used in navigation functions, and are increasingly important in augmented reality and context-awareness applications.
iSuppli also pointed out that there has been a surge in shipments of compasses for phones. Last year, 19 percent of GPS-enabled handsets include a compass, compared to only 4 percent in 2008. Compasses, together with GPS signal and camera, are essential for augmented reality applications found in popular devices like iPhone 3GS and Android smartphones. The firm anticipates the boom to continue over the next few years.
With the anticipated uplift of demand over the next few years, it is foreseeable that motion sensors will follow the touchscreen technology to become another ubiquitous feature in handheld devices.
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