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.