Akustica/Bosch announce new MEMS-based microphones for mobiles and tablets that bring HD voice capabilities.
According to Jérémie Bouchaud, director and principal analyst for MEMS &
Sensors at IHS, the worldwide MEMS microphone market is expected to grow
to more than 4 billion units by 2016, as compared to the 700 million shipped
in 2010. The reason, he said, is that the number of microphones used in each
smartphone has already gone from one to two and in some cases even three —
a number that may continue to grow while mobile device manufacturers use
sound input quality as a differentiating feature.
Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4 has two microphones, but the iPhone 5 uses four MEMS microphones.
The MEMS space is quickly growing, and will continue to do so. Sensors will be everywhere, and many of them will be based on MEMS.
