By: Ron Tussy

Ron Tussy — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:16:35 +0000

Your grasp on this market is impressive, nicely written though and insightful but given that your firm provides “generalized” silica coverage, you missed some really important details such as the fact that Microns’s management spun off Aptina because upper management within Micron’s imaging group persuaded Boise to let them go, given they are the only profitable business unit in ‘06, ‘07 and now ‘08. Micron did a couple of things right such as staying ahead of the process curve all the way down to Nyquist’s Limitation and if there is one thing Micron knows, it is how to push process based on their DRAM business and the fact that they are a fabbed provider, able to control their own destiny. Micron is being held captive by shrinking ASP’s now and in the future and the fact that sensors have moved down the list of market requirements, superceided by MP-3, touch screen, and video playback. Micron over-estimated their ability to convince Japan Inc. camera builders in ‘06 that their 5 MP CMOS sensors provided “good enough” quality for Japan Inc. to buy in. They did not and Micron may have taunted the water for future in-roads to camera builders. You are semi correct in your assumption that there are no immediate mass market opportunities until human to machine interaction becomes more previlant in consumer products. Automotive was supposed to bridge this gap, but other types of sensors are taking the design wins over imagers. Keep up the good work and thanks.

Comments on: Aptina for sale?

By: Ron Tussy