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Sony dominated the smartphone sensor market in 2020 but their market share is shrinking

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It’s probably not that much of a surprise, but Sony absolutely destroyed pretty much all their competition in 2020 when it came to the smartphone camera sensor market in 2020, with a 46% market revenue share, according to a report by Strategy Analytics. They say the global smartphone image sensor market recorded over $15 billion in revenue in 2020, up 13% year-on-year.

What’s perhaps equally as surprising as Sony’s huge 46% share is that 85% of the market was taken up by just three companies; Sony, Samsung at 29% and OmniVision at 10%. That remaining 15% is the entire rest of smartphone image sensor manufacturers worldwide. But according to the report, Sony’s share appears to be shrinking.

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Coronavirus outbreak “could affect image sensor and electronics business enormously” says Sony

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Sony has spoken up on the coronavirus outbreak in China and the effects it may have on its image sensor and other operations. The Nikkei reports that despite initially raising its operating profit and revenue forecasts for the current fiscal year, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said the coronavirus “may negate our revised earnings outlook”.

The issue largely seems to refer to Sony’s smartphone sensors, rather than camera sensors. Despite Sony being based in Japan, smartphones themselves are often assembled in China. That being said, some of Sony’s cameras, including the A7 III, A7R III (the A7R IV is made in Thailand) and RX100 VII, as well as most of their lenses, are also marked as “Made in China”.

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Canon adds five new CMOS sensors to their sensor lineup for third party manufacturers

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Canon’s sensor lineup has expanded to add five new sensors, including one Super 35mm and one Full Frame 50-megapixel sensor. It appears as though the additions are new to third party sales, although might have existed in previous Canon models.

All five sensors are rolling shutter CMOS sensors, designed primarily for surveillance, rather than photography or video, despite the physical size of a couple of them.

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Sony announces Industry 1st stacked CMOS sensor with hybrid autofocus and 3-axis stabilization

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Following from last year’s announcement that they were raising 440 billion yen (nearly $4 billion) to further development and production of new sensor technology, Sony have started to reveal the fruits of their labor with the announcement of their new IMX318 sensor.

Aimed squarely at the mobile devices market and with a pixel size of only 1.0μm, they’re able to pack an impressive 22.5MP into a sensor that has a diagonal of only 6.858mm.

Boasting a more compact size, greater image quality and higher performance, the IMX318 is the industry’s first to be equipped with built in high-speed hybrid autofocus system, able to lock on to a subject as quickly as only 0.3 seconds.

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Sony inks deal to acquire Toshiba’s image sensor business, facilities

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This week has been acquisition galore. First, the rumor of Nikon buying out Samsung’s NX sensor business (which has since been denied by the latter of the two), then came news that Phase One acquired Mamiya for its medium format technology.

Today, Sony announced it has inked a deal that solidifies a $154 million buyout of Toshiba’s image sensor business.[Read More…]

Sony Banking on Its Image Sensors; Will Raise $4 Billion to Invest in Development and Production

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Once known for its compact discs and Walkmans, Sony has suffered losses from its consumer goods in recent years. These losses, along with the success of the division in charge of image sensors lead to a surprising move by the Japanese giant.

Sony announced yesterday that it will raise 440 billion yen (nearly $4 billion) in order to further invest in image sensor development and production capabilities.

Despite major efforts, the company failed to see profit from its TV and mobile business.

On the other hand Sony is currently supplying its sensors to some of the largest tech companies, including its rivals in the photography and mobile markets, maintains a huge share of the market and is unable to meet the demand for its semiconductors.

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