Sony Corp is working around the clock to manufacture its in-demand image sensors, but even 24-hour operations has not been enough.
For the second straight year, the Japanese company is to run its chip factories constantly through the year-end holidays to try and keep up with demand for sensors used in smartphone cameras, said Terushi Shimizu, the head of Sony’s semiconductor unit.
The electronics giant is this fiscal year more than doubling its capital spending on the business to ￥280 billion (US$2.56 billion) and is also building a new plant in Nagasaki, Japan, that is to go online in April 2021.
“Judging by the way things are going, even after all that investment in expanding capacity, it might still not be enough,” Shimizu said in an interview at the firm’s Tokyo headquarters.
“We are having to apologize to customers, because we just can’t make enough,” he said.
It is now common to see three lenses on the back of a smartphone as manufacturers lean on camera specifications as a hard number to nudge customers into upgrading.
The latest models from Samsung Electronics Co and Huawei Technologies Co (華為) boast resolutions in excess of 40 megapixels, can capture ultrawide-angle images and come with depth sensors.
Apple Inc this year joined the fray with its triple-camera iPhone 11 Pro.
That is why even as smartphone market growth plateaus, Sony’s sales of image sensors continue to soar.
Semiconductors are now Sony’s most profitable business after the PlayStation.
The company in October raised its operating income outlook for the chip unit 38 percent to ￥200 billion in the year ending March next year, after second-quarter profit jumped by almost 60 percent.
Sony has forecast that revenue from its semiconductor division is to climb 18 percent to ￥1.04 trillion, of which image sensors account for 86 percent.
Sony in May said that it controls 51 percent of the image-sensor market as measured by revenue and that it is targeting a 60 percent share by its fiscal year 2025.
Shimizu estimated that Sony’s portion of the pie grew by a few percentage points this year alone.
The company is now looking to a new generation of sensors that can see the world in 3D.
Samsung and Huawei have already unveiled flagship models with 3D sensors.
Apple is rumored to be planning to introduce a 3D camera to its lineup next year.
Shimizu declined to comment on specific customers, but said that Sony is ready to meet what it expects to be a significant increase in demand next year.
“This was year zero for time of flight,” Shimizu said. “Once you start seeing interesting applications of this technology, it will motivate people to buy new phones.”
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
Protectionism: US trade chief Katherine Tai said the hikes would help to counter unfair trade practices from China, while boosting domestic clean energy investments US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) defended stiff tariff hikes against countries such as China, saying that paired with investment, they were a “legitimate and constructive” tool for reinvigorating domestic industries. Tai’s comments come a week after sharp tariff increases on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), EV batteries and solar cells took effect — with levies down the line on other products also recently finalized. The latest moves targeting US$18 billion in Chinese goods come weeks before next month’s US presidential election, with Democrats and Republicans pushing a hard line on China as competition between Washington and Beijing intensifies. In an interview on Thursday
RSS