Chinese smartphone vendors are looking to purchase CMOS image sensors from
companies other than Sony, since the Japanese company is short on supply. The
main reason according to sources quoted in the Digitimes report
is that Sony has given a higher priority to Apple and Samsung Electronics for
CMOS image sensor supplies.
According to the sources in Taiwan’s handset supply chain, Sony is 30% short
of fulfilling its demands for smartphone vendors such as Xiaomi Technology,
Huawei Device, Coolpad and ZTE. For second and third tier vendors, the supply
shortage is reaching 70-80% .
Apart from the established players, China also has a lot of new players
entering the market such as LeTV, Gree Electric Appliances and Daren. This will
lead to further supply shortage if Chinese handset makers rely only on Sony.
As a result of this, vendors are considering purchasing CMOS image sensors
from other suppliers such as OmniVision, Samsung Electronics and Toshiba, say
sources. There’s also news that China-based venture capital firm, Hua Capital
Management has agreed to acquire OmniVision for US$1.9 billion.
While Sony’s camera market share is behind its Japanese rivals Canon and
Nikon, the company is still making a lot of profits from the sale of image
sensors to smartphone as well as camera makers says the Wall Street Journal.
According to a market research estimate, in 2014 Sony made around 40.2 per cent
of all image sensors. This number is far higher than any of its rivals in this
segment.
Sony is followed by Omnivision which has a 15.7 per cent share and Samsung
which has 15.2 per cent. All other image sensor makers combined account for
28.9 per cent share.
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