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At the prestigious Photokina trade show, all the cameras from Hasselblad, Leica, and Olympus had Eastman Kodak's CCD (charge-coupled device) sensors instead of newer, more power-efficient CMOS sensors that are quickly becoming popular for use in cellphone cameras, PCs, and other digital imaging products. Even though Kodak has been capturing and processing images for a century, its progress in entering the CMOS sensor market has been slow. iSupplis estimate is that Kodak sold $190 million in image sensors during 2005, but only $65 million or 26 percent, came from CMOS sensors. IC Insights analyst Rob Lineback says Kodak has made a serious push in the market, but faces considerable competition, especially from leaders Micron Technology, Omnivision, and STMicroelectronics. Sales of CMOS sensors are growing faster than CCD sales, with CMOS accounting for 60 percent of the $7.5 billion image sensor market in 2006, says IC Insights. By 2010, CMOS should have 84 percent of the market, which should have a value then of $12.2 billion. Kodak also needs CMOS to shift its overall business from film-based photography products to digital imaging. A recent, important two-pronged strategy by Kodak included the 2004 purchase of National Semiconductor's CMOS sensors business and a decision six years ago to start selling image sensors to outside customers.
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