Largan Precision Co (大立光), Taiwan’s leading smartphone camera lens supplier, saw last month’s sales decline 30.15 percent from December last year, according to a statement posted on the company’s Web site yesterday.
Consolidated revenue fell from NT$5.45 billion in December last year to NT$3.804 billion (US$175.5 million), but the figure was still 17.88 percent higher than the NT$3.23 billion posted in January last year, the company said.
The Taichung-based firm — whose customers include Apple Inc, Sony Corp, LG Electronics Inc and Huawei Technologies Co (華為) — had earlier said that last month’s revenue would fall on seasonal factors, such as the Lunar New Year holiday.
However, Largan chief executive officer Adam Lin (林恩平) told a teleconference on Jan. 12 that combined revenue for last month and this month could outpace those of the same period last year, due to increasing demand for dual camera lenses.
Lin also said that Largan’s plants would continue to run at full capacity this quarter and the company is expecting more clients to adopt dual cameras this year, while some clients might consider more advanced optical zoom functions than those found on the iPhone 7 Plus.
As the quality of lenses has become a key factor influencing consumers’ decisions when purchasing handsets, major smartphone brands have moved their focus on the number of complementary metal oxide semiconductor image sensors in cameras and the handsets’ graphics processing functions, causing lenses with resolutions of at least 10 megapixels (10MP) to become mainstream, analysts said.
Largan started shipping iPhone 7 lenses in the second half of last year and the percentage of 10MP and above lenses in its total shipments has been climbing, analysts said.
Last month, 10MP and above lenses accounted for between 70 and 80 percent of its total shipments, and 8MP lenses contributed between 10 and 20 percent, while lenses with resolutions less than 5MP contributed 10 percent, according to Largan’s shipment breakdown.
“Optical lenses might incorporate functions like larger aperture, wide angle, zoom, dual lenses and so on. Demand for high-pixel and high-resolution lenses is expected to rise,” Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said in a note on Jan. 20.
The brokerage said Largan would be able to retain its leadership in the sector this year by leveraging its advantages in technology and capacity.
Largan shares closed at NT$4,490 on Friday in Taipei trading, rising 91.06 percent over the past 12 months, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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