Genius Electronic Optical Co (玉晶光), which supplies camera lenses for Apple Inc’s iPhones, yesterday said smart glasses are poised to become the next personal computing platform after smartphones, presenting a significant opportunity and a major challenge for companies producing lenses and optical products.
The company said camera lenses for handsets remain the core of its business.
Still, the increasing demand for lenses for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications, as well as smart glasses, is expected to contribute to its revenue, it said.
Photo: David Chang, EPA-EFE
Genius is optimistic about the fourth quarter and expects its business to perform better than the same period last year, company chairman Jones Chen (陳天慶) told an online earnings conference.
As the fourth quarter is not a peak season for the industry, revenue is expected to be lower than in the third quarter, he said.
For next year, the company hopes for revenue and profit to surpass this year’s levels, given the rapid growth of smart glasses and deployment by AR customers, Chen said.
Genius’ revenue in the third quarter rose 62.06 percent quarter-on-quarter and 3.29 percent year-on-year to NT$7.74 billion (US$247.7 million) — the highest since the third quarter of 2023, the company said.
Cumulative revenue for the first three quarters of this year edged up 0.68 percent annually to NT$17.84 billion, it said.
Third-quarter net profit hit the highest in eight quarters at NT$1.42 billion, rising 488 percent quarterly and 2.6 percent annually, while total net profit in the first three quarters fell 27.3 percent year-on-year to NT$2.53 billion, the company said.
Genius earned NT$12.54 a share in the third quarter and NT$22.41 from January to September, it said.
Regarding trends in handset lenses, Genius president Lee Kuo (郭英理) referred to three aspects: smaller, thinner and wider-angle optimization.
The company’s main products remain handset lenses, while new areas such as those used in healthcare, retail, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) devices are still in the experimentation phase, Kuo said.
The company would make adjustments in line with customers’ needs, he said.
The company entered the periscope lens supply chain this year, focusing on periscope lenses with 8x optical zooms, Kuo said.
Given market demand for higher magnifications such as 10x, 12x or even 16x, Genius would continue to develop these lenses in collaboration with customers, he said.
While the VR market has been weak recently, smart glasses have seen strong demand and are expanding from consumer entertainment to professional fields such as industry, education and healthcare on the back of rapid AI development, Chen said.
The intention of well-known brands to build their smart glasses ecosystems presents a significant opportunity for Genius, he said, citing the development of products such as imaging lenses, miniature projectors, prescription lenses and miniature motion-sensing lenses.
Regarding US tariffs, Chen said Genius does not ship products directly to the US, so Washington’s tariffs have no direct impact on the company, although they have an indirect effect.
As for exchange rates, the company adopts natural hedging strategies, trying to use the same currency for accounts receivable and payable, and primarily conducting purchases in US dollars, he said.
The company is still evaluating the need for overseas expansion and has not made a final decision yet, he added.
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