Market and Technology Trends

Microphones, Microspeakers and Audio Processing 2025

Mar 2025

The audio market, led by TWS and hearables and soon AR/VR, will grow from $7.1B in 2024 to $9B by 2030, driven by MEMS and voice interfaces.

YINTR25485

Key Features

This report provided comprehensive market data on MEMS microphones, MEMS micro speakers, and audio processing, including unit shipments and revenue by end-market and application. It describes key applications in both existing and emerging markets, detailing functions, and projecting the market landscape for 2030. Additionally, it analyzes major technological trends, focusing on developments in existing technologies and insights into emerging ones. The report also seeks to offer a thorough understanding of the value chain, infrastructure, and key players in the microphone, micro speaker, and audio IC markets, including a listing of sensor manufacturers and their technology portfolios, key integrators, and industrial supply chain information.

Report's objectives

To provide market data on MEMS microphones, micro speakers and audio processing using key market metrics and dynamics:
- Unit shipments and revenue by end-market.
- Unit shipments and revenue by application.
- Market share for each category of application.
To describe key applications in existing and emerging markets:
- Functions, critical specification requirements, level of assembly and technology choices.
- What are the major drivers? What will the market look like in 2030?
To analyze major technological trends:
- Developments in existing technologies, such as performance.
- Insights into emerging technologies.
To enable a through understanding of the value chain, infrastructure and players for the microphone, micro speaker and audio IC markets:
Extensive listing of sensor manufacturers worldwide and their technology portfolios.
List of key integrators worldwide.
Industrial supply chain information for each application.

Microphone, micro speaker and audio IC market: $9B in 2030?

Hearing is the second most used sense after vision that’s mean that several end systems can use audio systems for a lot of applications. As a result, the overall audio industry which include MEMS microphones, MEMS micro speakers and Audio processing generated $7.1B in 2024, and we expect it to generate $9B by 2030, with a 3.7% CAGR on this forecast period. Most of the generated revenues are coming from the consumer market, with more than 96% followed by the medical market with 2.5%.

This sector is leaded by the consumer market. The smartphone is still the main application which drive the microphone volume and for the micro speaker, TWS and hearables seems to be the best for this technology. The AR/VR sector is also a good opportunity for microphones and micro speakers, as voice should be one of the main HMIs for this end systems.
In the automotive market, the microphones are mainly used for infotainment. The application RANC, is not yet a game changer but will increase in the next few years thanks to the car electrification.
The industrial market is driven by the office speakers and meeting phones.
The medical market is driven by the hearing aids application for the microphones and the micro speakers. The MEMS technology, thanks to its low size and low power consumption fit perfectly with this application. We expect in the next years to see an increasing penetration rate of MEMS technology.

Microphone, micro speaker and audio IC ecosystems are still dynamic

The microphone sector is a typical example of a polarized industry. The high-end market (SNR >65dB) is stable, however, the lower-end market suffered from a sharp end-system demand and fierce competition, pushing prices downwards.

The 2 mains WLP players for the MEMS microphone industry are still Goertek and Knowles with respectively 26% and 23% market share in revenues.
Infineon leads the MEMS microphone die market with 2.6Bunits shipped in 2024, representing 38% of the market share.

MEMS micro speakers can be used across many applications. Currently, the entry point for almost every start-up is TWS in-ear monitors and wired/wireless hearables.

Most developed technologies come from two SMEs: xMEMS and Usound with respectively 52% and 41% market share, in revenues.
But the leading MEMS player, Bosch, is also now in the game with recent Arioso acquisition.

In the CODEC market, Cirrus Logic and Qualcomm remain the leading players with market shares in volume of 30% and 27%, respectively, followed by Hisilicon at 12%.

The global audio processor market is highly diverse, with the highest concentration of companies in the US and China, followed by Europe. MediaTek leads the smart speaker processor market with a 33% share, followed by Apple at 20%, Allwinner at 15%, and Qualcomm at 14%.

Key trends in microphones, micro speakers and audio IC technologies

The penetration rate of MEMS technology in microphones has been made possible by key advantages such as power consumption, size. Hence, the ECM market is declining.

Current MEMS technology for microphone is capacitive detection. This market is now mature, and the prices are low. Some players are also working on piezoelectric detection.
SNR is a key feature for proper voice capture and speech recognition. High SNR microphones are more and more needed, it is mainly driven by the TWS application.
In 2024 the analog microphones represent 62% of the shipped volumes. This is mainly due to the fact that the phone mainly used analog microphones.

Traditional micro speakers are well established and have good performances, but the MEMS micro speaker can bring several advantages (Low power consumption, High repeatability & uniformity, High reliability for assembling, Possible lower ASP because of economy of scale, Dust & water immunity)

One of the main challenges to make a good MEMS micro speaker is to manage to cover the all-frequency range.
The majority of micro speakers on the market use the piezoelectric technology to provide sound.

Microphone customers are now looking not only for high-quality microphones but also for ones with native smart features such as keyword detection and noise cancellation.

The use of AI in TWS earbuds is limited to specific tasks such as keyword detection (e.g., "Hey Siri" or "Okay Google"), voice cancellation, or sound detection to better suppress background noise.
Smart speakers are by far the audio devices with the largest dies.
Embedded devices like AR/VR glasses and headsets are highly constrained physically and use very sophisticated chips.