Summary
Indicates a focused effort by image sensor companies to diversify into market segments other than mobile phones and digital cameras.
Analysis
In the past, CCD image sensors have delivered significantly better image quality than CMOS sensors, and commanded a higher price per unit. Recent design and manufacturing process improvements in the small size, high resolution CMOS sensors has tended to reduce that gap, and with the realization that at higher pixel densities, the camera lens plays a significantly larger part in image quality, along with image quality enhancement software, the resulting gap has gotten much narrower (if it is even there anymore). Recent CMOS vs CCD image analysis shows that it is possible to get similar video image quality via both CCD and CMOS image sensors, so why pay the higher price per unit for CCD?
About the numbers in this article re. market segment growth - double this year is possible, but not very probable. An annualized 88% growth from 2004 to 2010? Doubtful. This has been a steady growth, highly fragmented market, ready to "make the move". Is this the market size inflection point - quite possibly! The size of electronics market segments do correlate quite strongly (and inversely) with system prices, so that will be an important factor affecting market size, along with ease-of-install, inherent solution security, and so many other (albiet less important) factors.
