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12-27-2019, 08:32 AM   #1
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Sony Reportedly ‘Can’t Make Enough’ Image Sensors to Keep Up With Demand

Dec 26, 2019 11:30 am | Christopher Baugh



Sony, the world’s dominantmobile camera lens maker, is reportedly having difficulties making enough tomeet the demand of its customers.



TerushiShimizu, the head of Sony’s semiconductor unit, revealed in an interviewwith Bloomberg thatthe company is running its chip factories constantly through the holidays forthe second consecutive year to try and keep up with the demand of its mobileimage sensors.“Judging by the way thingsare going, even after all that investment in expanding capacity, it might stillnot be enough,” Shimizu said in an interview at the company’s Tokyoheadquarters. “We are having to apologize to customers because we just can’tmake enough.”
Sony controls over 50 percentof the smartphone image sensor market and supplies them to various smartphonemakers including Xiaomi and Apple. In an attempt to cope withdemands, the company has invested in increasing its production capacity bybuilding a new factory in Nagasaki that is scheduled to open in April 2021.
The company is also seeingincreased demand for a new generation of image sensors that can see the worldin three dimensions. Those sensors use a method known as “time-of-flight” or“ToF” sensor that sends out laser pulses and measures how long it takes forthem to bounce back in order to create more detailed depth models.
After the PlayStation,semiconductors are now Sony’s most profitable business segment. The company hasraised its chip unit’s operating income outlook to around $1.8 billion USD forthe year ending March 2021, and it predicts revenue will climb 18 percent toabout $95 billion, of which image sensors account for 86 percent.
“The camera has become thebiggest differentiator for smartphone brands and everyone wants their socialmedia pictures and videos to look nice, ” said Masahiro Wakasugi, an analystwith Bloomberg Intelligence. “Sony is riding that wave of demand very well.”

12-27-2019, 09:09 AM   #2
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If nothing else, it bodes well for worldwide economic prosperity. At least, for some people.
12-27-2019, 09:30 AM   #3
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It's all about phone sensors, apparently.
12-27-2019, 09:35 AM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by Rondec Quote
It's all about phone sensors, apparently.
The phone is the new compact camera. The image sensors have come a long way.

12-27-2019, 09:37 AM   #5
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Yes but still they can divert equipment for camera sensor to phone sensor as camera business is way down.
12-27-2019, 09:51 AM   #6
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High demand for phone camera sensors may be good news for Sony but not for the likes of Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Fujifilm etc. Every mid-range or high end phone sold represents money that will not be spent on cameras.
12-27-2019, 10:02 AM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by Wasp Quote
High demand for phone camera sensors may be good news for Sony but not for the likes of Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Fujifilm etc. Every mid-range or high end phone sold represents money that will not be spent on cameras.
You got it. Phone camera is now the key differentiator between brand and model of cell phone.

Canon for this season is running add to push buyer to get camera instead of phone as they know it's their main competitor

12-27-2019, 10:08 AM - 2 Likes   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by bobmaxja Quote
the company is running its chip factories constantly through the holidays forthe second consecutive year to try and keep up with the demand
Silicon chip factories aren't like pizza ovens, stopping it require one week to switch it on again and creates a big mess in the work in progress since wafer processing requires 8 to 12 weeks of processing until silicon material can be taken out of the process without concerns, therefore all silicon chip factories in the world work 24/7 365 days/year except with there is an earthquake or the line has issues where some sections are being maintained. The way wafer production can vary is that machines aren't fully loaded with material, but all machines keep running the same way whether they are full of material or partially empty, it's called capacity utilisation. No one silicon sensor maker regulates production output by starting and stopping the factories. The interview message given to Bloomberg is obviously aimed at investors, and/or from a commercial executive / financial / marketing officer who has no clue how image sensors are made. Executives own stock options and say such things as it makes stock price rise, so they can favorably sell their stocks. There are some funny interviews of CEOs on CNBC, the same CEO might say things at one interview and the contrary at the next interview, spinning positive words to keep stock prices high , avoiding panic sales from investors.

Last edited by biz-engineer; 12-27-2019 at 10:24 AM.
12-27-2019, 10:43 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by Sir Nameless Quote
If nothing else, it bodes well for worldwide economic prosperity. At least, for some people.
More so, I think it illustrates everyone owns a phone. Cameras may be common objects, but before the advent of the smart
device not everyone owned a camera.
12-27-2019, 10:54 AM - 1 Like   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by bobmaxja Quote
Phone camera is now the key differentiator between brand and model of cell phone.
And Sony has won back market share in this segment. Combine the two factors and the fact that you can't economically change production on a frequent basis and Sony has a temporary backlog of orders. Of course Sony's marketing department is going to get as much mileage out of this good news as they can.
12-27-2019, 11:37 AM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by biz-engineer Quote
Silicon chip factories aren't like pizza ovens, stopping it require one week to switch it on again and creates a big mess in the work in progress since wafer processing requires 8 to 12 weeks of processing until silicon material can be taken out of the process without concerns, therefore all silicon chip factories in the world work 24/7 365 days/year except with there is an earthquake or the line has issues where some sections are being maintained. The way wafer production can vary is that machines aren't fully loaded with material, but all machines keep running the same way whether they are full of material or partially empty, it's called capacity utilisation. No one silicon sensor maker regulates production output by starting and stopping the factories. The interview message given to Bloomberg is obviously aimed at investors, and/or from a commercial executive / financial / marketing officer who has no clue how image sensors are made. Executives own stock options and say such things as it makes stock price rise, so they can favorably sell their stocks. There are some funny interviews of CEOs on CNBC, the same CEO might say things at one interview and the contrary at the next interview, spinning positive words to keep stock prices high , avoiding panic sales from investors.
Unless they mean that they have skipped the anual plant shutdown (do silicon factories also do one like in other types of industry? I'm not too familiar with semiconductor foundries, despite having Infineon and Globalfoundries nearby ).
12-27-2019, 11:52 AM - 1 Like   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by Serkevan Quote
Unless they mean that they have skipped the anual plant shutdown (do silicon factories also do one like in other types of industry? I'm not too familiar with semiconductor foundries, despite having Infineon and Globalfoundries nearby ).
It is interesting to work for a company and read what the marcom department say on social media, the PR can say anything that can't be verified by outsiders. It's getting to a point that some big lies are being published and there is nothing we can do about it.
12-27-2019, 01:18 PM   #13
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Just wish Sony had more and better competition. Our world is getting ridiculously centralised. They are so few manufacturers/providers of any given thing globally. Soviet russia had more real variation than we do in several areas.
12-27-2019, 01:30 PM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by house Quote
Just wish Sony had more and better competition. Our world is getting ridiculously centralised. They are so few manufacturers/providers of any given thing globally. Soviet russia had more real variation than we do in several areas.
Foodstuffs are the most egregious example, I think. Media is ridiculous as well. Electronics (or tech in general -take your pick of AMD or Intel/nVidia) yet another example. So much for the free market...
12-27-2019, 04:05 PM   #15
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Do we know for sure that Sony doesn't have a separate factory for camera sensors?
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