Bishop and Associates has just released a new report providing a complete analysis of the World RF Coax Connector Market. This new report furnishes detailed 2006/2007 sales statistics for 11 end-use equipment markets, as well as five-year projections to the year 2012. Expanded coverage of 10 major coax types is supplied and profiles of leading manufacturers are exhibited. This report provides all the key data needed to analyze the World RF Coax Connector Market.

The RF connector market is nearing $2.0 billion worldwide, growing an average of 10.8 percent per year since 2002.  Demand for RF products has been driven by the growing demand for mobile and wireless communications in the commercial and military markets and the telecommunications and data communications markets.  By 2012, RF connectors will reach $3.0 billion in annual sales.

In 2007, the world RF market totaled $1,879 million, increasing 7.5 percent from 2006 sales of $1,749 billion. For the first time, Europe consumed more RF connector than North America. As expected, China and ROW are the fastest growing markets for RF connectors, increasing 2007 sales by 16.8 percent and 17.5 percent respectively.

RF Connector Market by Region
2007-vs-2006

The RF connector market is projected to grow an average of 8.1 percent per year to 2012, achieving nearly $3.0 billion in annual sales. By 2012, China will consume $762.4 million RF connectors, followed by Europe with $652.4 million.

The key market drivers for RF connectors include miniaturization and increased bandwidth.  Other market drivers include reduced complexity, superior performance, better time to market and standardization.  Along with these market drivers will be the potential move to fiber (FTTH and networks) in many applications, triggered by increased bandwidth requirements.

Miniaturization – This applies not only to RF connectors used in handheld devices and computers, but also connectors used in military/aerospace, transportation, transportation (non-automotive) and medical applications.  Miniaturization leads to a reduction in not only size, but also weight, which in turn leads to better fuel economy and the ability to pack more electronics into less space.

Increased Bandwidth – Multimedia applications, including video, video conferencing and HDTV, as well as other applications like distance education (interactive classrooms) and real-time data back up and need for additional security will continue to drive the requirement for increased bandwidth. 

RF connectors are segmented into 10 primary families and one “other” family.  The “other” product category includes between series & in series adaptors for all families, Mil-C-22516, 31031 and 49142, RF terminations, terminators and dummy leads and other special designs.

Within each of the ten primary product families, RF connectors are segmented into sub-families by size, frequency, coupling method or style. The primary and “other” families are:

Recognized Industry RF Connector Call Outs by Primary Family

In 2006 and 2007, the most significant area of growth was in the Board-to-Board family, which grew 15.1 percent.  This was followed by the Ultra-microminiature family with a 12.1 percent increase.  The lowest growth rate was seen in the blindmate family, which grew only 4.7 percent.  Lower than overall growth was also seen in the subminiature family and the “other” family.  Although the subminiature family demonstrated lower than average growth, much of this can be contributed to the overall dollar value of this family.