The IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS) is widely regarded as the most prestigious microwave industry gathering in the world, and is an extremely important venue for Skyworks. As a leader in research, development and application of RF and microwave theory and techniques, Skyworks has for many years viewed IMS as the premiere venue for demonstrating our products and helping to advance thought leadership on a variety of important technical trends and topics. From the technical sessions to the networking opportunities, IMS is ground zero for some of the most important and exciting industry dialog of the year. We are pleased to be returning to this year's IMS and looking forward to an oustanding conference.
These are both exciting and challenging times for the wireless industry, especially in the microwave industry that Skyworks' Linear Products group serves. Leveraging our Linear Products catalog business and worldwide distribution network, Skyworks is expanding into a broader set of end markets including broadband, industrial, medical, computing, wireless networking and cellular infrastructure. Our Linear Products customers place high value on architectures that reduce size, resolve noise problems, reduce BOM complexity and otherwise enable competitive differentiation. And that customer base has grown over the past few years to number more than 1,000, with over 2,500 product SKUs.
There is also strong customer demand for a robust pipeline, especially in the area of analog solutions, including forward analog integration in satellite set-top boxes, notebook computers, cellular base stations and wireless routers, to name a few applications. Another exciting and challenging growth area is the emerging energy management space, where more than 2.5 billion households and businesses worldwide are driving demand for service providers to offer economic RF solutions that can automate real-time gas, water and power metering and usage reporting.
Another challenge is to advance FEMTO cell development for small cellular base stations in residential and small business environments so that we can solve very real, near-term signal coverage and capacity issues. Finally, there are challenges and opportunities in the highly diverse automotive semiconductor sector, where there is a dramatic rise in addressable opportunities ranging from keyless entry systems, GPS, climate controllers and engine/tire sensors, to Bluetooth and digital radios plus after-market toll tags and hybrid vehicles.