Sony Image Sensor Business is growing (Bloomberg).

Bloomberg published an interesting article about the financial situation of the Sony Image sensor business. And Image Sensor World analyzed the key data which I will report here:

Here are the main statements:

• Sony’s revenue from the image sensors gained an estimated 30% last year.
• About 80% of the imaging sensors Sony produces are sold outside the company, said Masahito Takeda, a spokesman for Sony.
• Most of the 10.9B yen ($111M) operating profit last quarter from Sony’s device division was generated by image sensor sales, Deutsche Bank estimates.

The article also quotes interesting TSR market data:

• Global shipments of the imaging sensor will probably grow to 3.14B units this year
• Sensors made by Sony sold for an average of $7.30 each, almost four times the $1.93 that Samsung got for similar chips, based on 2012 unit sales and revenue estimates by TSR
• Sony’s revenue from image sensors rose to $2.45B in 2012 from $1.89B a year earlier, garnering 32% of the global market
• Omnivision ranked second with 14.4%, followed by Samsung at 12.9%.

The system camera sensor business plays a minor role here. Smartphone and Tablet Image sensors are by far more important for Sony.