Seiko Epson predicts many more color handsets
Based on an estimated 410 million total units shipped in 2002 and an expected 470 million total units in 2003, Seiko Epson s prediction calls for a huge increase in color units from 40-60 million in 2002 to 140-190 million in 2003.
Alexander says that while the majority of handset replacement cycles to date have been driven by carriers and their need to add incremental voice capacity, the rapid shift towards color screens appears to be largely a consumer driven phenomenon.
"We expect this consumer driven replacement cycle to be one of many as newer feature rich handsets come to market that offer significantly more than the ability to place a voice call - integrated digital cameras, FM radios, gaming platforms, GPS location-based services to name but a few," says Alexander.
"These replacement cycles will continue to drive increasingly healthy growth in handset unit shipments through the balance of 2003 and into 2004."
Alexander says that these trends are obviously favorable to component RF players that are striving for unit growth to drive incremental fab utilization.
"The power requirements of color screens are significant given increasing brightness, higher quality screen resolutions and refresh rates," says Alexander. "RF components continue to consume the greatest amount of power within a handset.
"As such, the trend towards color screens and subsequent thirst for power savings will likely favor highly efficient, highly integrated RF components such as those supplied by Skyworks, RF Micro Devices, Anadigics and TriQuint."
