While looking for camera phone information on the Web, I found this factoid: A camera phone contains $65 - $75 worth of semiconductors, according to an older (February 24, 2004) article in the Business Journal - Portland (free registration required).
The article also notes that cellular phones without cameras contain $22 - $25 worth of semiconductors.
The article, focusing on growth in the semiconductor industry, says Motorola can't obtain enough semiconductors for its camera phones, and the means there's a need for more chips.
Semiconductor slump over
The article reports:
"The deepest, blackest slump in the chip equipment industry may have vanished into deep memory when wireless phone giant Motorola Inc. declared Dec. 4 that its phone sales were constrained by an industrywide shortage of semiconductor components."That announcement was an emphatic indicator that something dramatic has changed in the semiconductor and semiconductor equipment industry. Suddenly, the glut of semiconductor manufacturing capacity that had kept equipment orders on ice month after month was gone.
"In its place? A manufacturing squeeze, and a mad rush for new equipment to satisfy demand for consumer and business devices and computers."
Comments