Worldwide sensors and actuators sales to reach $15.1 billion in 2018, says IC Insights

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., 2 May 2014. Worldwide sales of sensors and actuators will to grow 14 percent to a all-time high of $9.9 billion in 2014 after a yearlong slump, predict analysts at market researcher IC Insights Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Sensors and actuators sales then should surge to $15.1 billion by 2018 after growing by 11.7 percent each year, IC Insights analysts say in the 2014 O-S-D Report -- A Market Analysis and Forecast for Optoelectronics, Sensors/Actuators, and Discretes.

Driving market growth are multi-sensor smartphones, wearable devices, Internet appliances, RF filtering actuators, pocket projectors, microphone chips, and fingerprint identification sensors, analysts say.

The sensors and actuators market flattened last year with slow growth and price erosion in its two largest categories -- accelerometers and gyroscopes, and magnetic-field sensors, analysts say. The slowdown in sensors and actuators had been brewing for a couple years when sales hit a plateau from 2011 to 2013, analysts say.

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Pressure sensor sales strengthened significantly in 2013, climbing 16 percent to a all-time high of $1.3 billion due to measurement applications in smartphones and other portable systems, medical equipment, embedded-control applications, and healthy growth rates in automotive markets.

Sales of acceleration and yaw sensor sales declined 2 percent last year to slightly less than $2.5 billion, while revenues for magnetic-field sensors fell 1 percent to $1.4 billion. Built with MEMS technology, acceleration and yaw sensors had not suffered a sales decline since 2005.

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The O-S-D Report’s forecast shows all product categories in the sensors and actuators market strengthening with double-digit sales increases in 2014. New record-high sales are expected to be set in pressure sensor (+18 percent to $1.6 billion), acceleration and yaw sensors (+14 percent to nearly $2.9 billion), and magnetic-field sensors (+13 percent to $1.6 billion).

The actuator category is projected to end its two-year sales slump in 2014, rising 11 percent to about $3.6 billion, according to the O-S-D Report’s forecast.

For more information contact IC Insights online at www.icinsights.com.