Analog Devices Harnesses a Wii Hit

Many of the initial ideas for marrying MEMS and cell phones aren't the kinds of things that would make consumers line up outside a store at midnight.

Handset makers such as Samsung and Nokia(NOK Quote) have introduced certain models that use MEMS chips to offer a pedometerlike feature, allowing consumers to count their paces and measure other types of physical activity.

Another frequently touted idea involves a MEMS chip that detects when the handset has been lifted toward the user's ear, switching off the phone screen's backlighting to conserve battery power. Clever as this is, it's hard to imagine handset makers incurring the extra costs of adding a MEMS chip into a phone for such a feature.

For all its potential to shake-up consumer electronics, ADI's MEMS plan hinges on somebody else's dream.