If there is one thing we can be sure of regarding Samsung's new flagship Galaxy S4, is that the company has certainly no let any of the internal space available to its design engineers go to waste. The company has clearly packed a "ton" of sensors in the new smartphone and in doing so there is no doubt what so ever - even by those of us who call the S4 derivative, that it has put itself just slightly ahead of the times with its new collection of sensor-based capabilities.
More specifically, Samsung has stepped up its lead within the mobile device market relative to the adoption of micro electro-mechanical system (aka MEMS) pressure sensors. It is now a fair question to ask if Samsung's adoption is likely to lead to a much larger rate of market growth for the pressure sensor market over the next few years.
There are very few players aside from Samsung that have stepped up their game in using pressure sensors in smartphones in any innovative ways. In fact the only other smartphone OEM of any significance to use pressure sensors has been Sony Mobile, which used some in several of its models in 2012. As well, a very few obscure Chinese vendors - such as Xiaomi have used them. This obviously represents a very limited current market.
Neither HTC with its new flagship HTC One, nor Nokia with its Lumia phones, nor LG, nor Apple - which in fact pioneered the use of MEMS sensors to begin with - is currently using MEMs pressure sensors. Nor do we anticipate usage at any time in 2013.
The IHS iSuppli MEMS & Sensors Service team, meanwhile, has stepped in with an answer to the question on the impact Samsung is likely to have on the pressure sensor market, and it turns out that it will be substantial. Global shipments of pressure sensors in cell phones, according to iSuppli's estimates, are set to rise to 681 million units in 2016.
That number represents an 8X increase over current shipments, which according to iSuppli totaled only 82 million in 2012. Shipments for 2013 are anticipated to rise almost 100 percent, to a total of 162 million units. The rise in shipments will be due for the most part to Samsung’s usage of the pressure sensors in the Galaxy S4 and other smartphone models it will introduce this year.
IHS hasn't noted any numbers for the other major mobile device vendors. However, the company does expect Apple to begin using them in 2014. The company believes that for 2014, between Samsung and Apple growth will likely double again and will probably reach 325 million units.
Jérémie Bouchaud, director and senior principal analyst for MEMS & sensors at HIS says that, "Samsung is the only major OEM now using pressure sensors in all its flagship smartphone models. The company appears to be slightly ahead of its time in its adoption of pressure sensors, even though the most compelling application - indoor navigation - is still not ready for deployment. However, Samsung seems to want to anticipate the start of this market and get a jump on the competition for pressure sensors. The pressure device represents just one component among a wealth of different sensors used in the S4.”
What does Bouchaud mean? One of the more interesting applications now being investigated is the fast Global Positioning System (GPS) lock, wherein a mobile phone's GPS chipset can lock on to a satellite signal and calculate positions more quickly by using a pressure sensor to determine the smartphone’s altitude. However, the one most exciting use for pressure sensors in the short term future is likely to be indoor navigation, an area that is clearly ripe with growth potential, especially for retail and travel applications. Pressure sensors will provide the floor accuracy required to determine which level a user is on within a structure.
Think of it as three dimensional location tracking. While the ecosystem is not yet fully in place for indoor location or navigation, IHS anticipates this market will reach a breakthrough in growth during the next 12 to 18 months.
Speaking of indoor navigation, interestingly Apple itself looks to have just acquired a small Wi-Fi company, WifiSLAM, who's technology supposedly allows a smartphone to pinpoint its location to within approximately 8 feet of the actual location. WifiSLAM uses ambient Wi-Fi signals that are already present in buildings. It is conceivable that Apple may look to utilize the technology for such use within Apple mobile devices.
As noted earlier, Apple was the company that essentially pioneered MEMS sensor use, dating back to the original iPhone and was the top consumer of these devices through 2011. However, in 2012 Samsung took that lead away from Apple for the first time. Now it is clear - at least to iSuppli - that Samsung will have a considerable lead over Apple and other competitors within the installed base of pressure sensors in smartphones going forward.
Samsung's Sensor Suppliers
IHS has not yet conducted a physical teardown of the Galaxy S4, though the company has provided an excellent preliminary virtual teardown. However, the IHS iSuppli MEMS & Sensors Service can provide some very informed guesses as to the likely suppliers of these devices for the smartphone.
- The pressure sensor in the S4 is made either by STMicroelectronics, as it was in the Galaxy S III; or by Bosch, like what was used in the Galaxy Note 1 and 2. These two companies are the only mass producers of these devices today for handsets.
- STMicroelectronics and InvenSense, are expected to share the supply of the S4’s inertial measurement sensor, which combines the accelerometer and gyroscope.
- The S4’s compass can be supplied by any one of three vendors. These are AKM, Yamaha and Alps (an up-and-coming manufacturer in this area).
- Capella Microsystems is likely to be the RGB supplier. Other potential suppliers are AMS-TAOS, Maxim and Hamamatsu.
IHS anticipates the use of an RGB sensor in the S4, as part of a combo device that delivers RGB, proximity, and IR LED emitter capabilities - which is the case with both the Galaxy Note 2 and the Samsung S III. Samsung was, in fact, the only consumer of such combo sensors in smartphones in 2012.
During the S4's announcement Samsung noted that its display would have the ability to adapt to different lighting conditions. This suggests that the RGB sensor will likely be installed on the side of the S4 display, where it will be able to sense the color temperature of a given environment and adapt the contrast and colors on the display to enhance the viewing experience. Such RGB sensors are useful for high-end displays. It's also possible to use an RGB sensor with the S4's camera module. In this case the RGB sensor would monitor conditions and be used to correct white balance.
In any case there is no doubt that Samsung does have a significant lead with MEMS. Is it real disruptive innovation or simply a smart, slightly ahead of its time usage? To be sure it is the latter. Even so it is innovation.
Edited by
Amanda Ciccatelli
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