SAN JOSE, CA—Global revenue growth for all lasers in 2007 was about 9% above the 2006 level according to this year’s Annual Review and Forecast of the Laser Marketplace from Laser Focus World (LFW; Nashua, NH) to be released in January. “This was within one percentage point of last year’s projection and pushed total annual sales of lasers across the $6 billion mark,” noted Steve Anderson, chief editor of LFW and co-author of the review. “It was something of a pleasant surprise given the mixed results reported by many of the individual laser producers during 2007,” he said.
Full results from the 2008 Review and Forecast—together with a detailed look at selected photonics technology and market trends—will be available in January to attendees at the 18th annual Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar in San Jose, CA. Hosted by LFW together with Industrial Laser Solutions (ILS) and Strategies Unlimited (Mountain View, CA) the 2008 seminar will be held January 21 at SPIE’s Photonics West. Besides the 2007 market review, attendees will also get a look at projections for 2008. Other program highlights include the Ultrafast Technology Forum, and a keynote presentation by Peter Leibinger, executive VP of the Laser Technology and Electronics Business Division of TRUMPF GmbH (Ditzingen, Germany; see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/303804).
“The seminar is a must attend for anyone looking to understand the latest trends in the laser marketplace,” said Stuart Woods, director of business development at Coherent UK (Ely, England). “The seminar has helped me many times over the past several years to understand and resolve the market numbers associated with my industry,” said Woods. “As we all know, starting with the right numbers makes for the right decisions in a very competitive marketplace.”
“The seminar’s coverage of the laser market gives me an excellent overview of what the industry is thinking and where it’s heading,” said Ken Kaufmann, new technology development director at Hamamatsu (Bridgewater, NJ). The Marketplace Seminar aims to provide a roadmap of where the market has been over the past year, and define what specific laser and photonic technologies are actively contributing to, and will contribute to, the market’s future.
While much of the Marketplace Seminar content is based on this comprehensive, qualitative and quantitative analysis of laser markets, the program also draws from today’s hottest emerging topics in optoelectronics. “In the early days it was just lasers and then, about 8–10 years ago, expanded into the optoelectronics subjects presented in the afternoon sessions,” said David Belforte, editor-in-chief and publisher of ILS. A recent seminar included a fiber laser forum to highlight that surging technology (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/248409), while this year’s event will include presentations about investing in photonics markets, the booming optical coherence tomography (OCT) business (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/313503), a discussion of opportunities for lasers in photovoltaic processing, and a Forum on applications-intensive ultrafast technology (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/312357
“I have attended the LFW Marketplace Seminar for many years and believe that anyone attending will realize that they have been exposed to a snapshot of the worldwide laser market,” said Ron Humphrey, marketing manager at Scientific Materials (Bozeman, MT). “Each market segment—industrial, medical, scientific, and defense—is uniquely covered.” In addition to providing valuable market information, the seminar’s steadily growing attendance provides an important networking opportunity for CEOs, technology officers, marketing and business managers, analysts and investors, and representatives from laser and photonics system manufacturers.
For more information and to register for this prestigious event, visit www.marketplaceseminar.com.—Gail Overton