Sony is investing $345 million into image sensor development for front-facing cameras in smartphones and tablets.
All in the pursuit of better selfies. No, really.
The selfie-Instagram-Facebook craze, and the growing popularity of video calling has raised the stakes for makers of front-facing mobile device camera CMOS sensors. In that market, Sony competes primarily with Omnivision Technologies, the world's second-largest supplier of camera sensors. Sony is the largest supplier, and with these investments, it is recognizing that the market will grow to justify its spending on development and production capacity.
The video-calling market is set to grow even faster, as connectivity issues become less problematic with the proliferation of wireless network access, and even the ability to use 4G LTE data networks when necessary.
Sony's money will go into the construction of two new factories in Japan and into refurbishing a factory that Sony purchased from Renesas Electronics Corp., a semiconductor maker.
There is opportunity for Sony to get a leg up in the front-facing sensor market. Currently, cost, not quality, drives the front-facing sensor market. The front-facing camera has always taken a back seat to the rear-facing camera as the primary imaging tool on a smartphone or tablet. As a result, most front-facing cameras sport considerably less impressive specs than rear-facing cameras. It was only in the past few years that front-facing cameras moved out of the VGA shack and into the multiple-megapixel chateau.
With the increasing importance of front-facing cameras as a communications and social media enabler, Sony would be wise to develop a superior quality sensor at a competitive price. The company can draw on its already established expertise in the market, as it currently makes the image sensors for Apple's iPhone. The increasing proliferation of larger smartphone and tablet screens also enhances the need for better quality imaging.
Sony intends to increase production from its current level of 60,000 CMOS sensors per month up to 68,000 monthly beginning in August of next year, then up to 75,000 per month by the end of 2015.
Sony is also rumored (registration/fee required) to be in talks with Apple to double its output of camera phone components for the upcoming iPhone 6, which may have a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera.
Sony is also making this investment as part of its plan to increase the company's involvement in several aspects of the smartphone market.
