From cell phones to PDAs, the day may not be far off when nearly all hand-held electronic gadgets come with built-in cameras.
That should be good news for Japan's struggling electronics industry, long the leader in technology to fashion silicon microchips into "electronic film" for camcorders, digital still cameras and photo-taking handsets. But foreign rivals such as Micron Technology have set their sights on the fast-growing image sensor market, and new technology could embroil the Japanese industry in a debilitating battle like those already seen in memory chips and flat PC screens.
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