# Sony sensors are now their own business



## ahsanford (Oct 6, 2015)

News -- Sony is moving sensors into its own business (or business unit):

http://petapixel.com/2015/10/06/sony-to-spin-off-its-image-sensor-business-as-a-new-company/

I presume this gives that arm of the business more clout to drive its own R&D investments, IP, capital, etc. as a sensor business instead of as a smaller part of an imaging business. 

But one has to wonder if their imaging (camera) business might suffer from this. _Perhaps_ -- and I'm completely riffing here -- a standalone sensor business will more aggressively try to license their tech as widely as possible. 

We've been waiting for CaNikon to dive into FF mirrorless, and though Nikon has been licensing Sony sensors, no Nikon FF mirrorless offering has arrived. There are many possible reasons for this, but one might be that Sony has contractually limited the use of those a7 sensors to Nikon DSLRs to protect their near monopoly on FF mirrorless.

So it's a bit of a wild tangent, but might a standalone Sony sensor company just try to boost its numbers and allow Nikon (or Canon) to license their tech in more places?

- A


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## distant.star (Oct 6, 2015)

.
No idea how factual it may be, but I've heard Fuji is being inhibited by an agreement with Sony over a sensor. Fuji plans to use a Sony sensor in a new XPro2 model, but they are not permitted to use it until some time next year because the same sensor is being used in some Sony camera body. So, Fuji has had to delay intro of a new model.

That's the story, and as I say, no idea if it's real or idle gossip or speculation or some mix of it all.

Anyway, looks like Sony sees more sensor business than camera business -- the obvious trend.


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## privatebydesign (Oct 6, 2015)

distant.star said:


> .
> No idea how factual it may be, but I've heard Fuji is being inhibited by an agreement with Sony over a sensor. Fuji plans to use a Sony sensor in a new XPro2 model, but they are not permitted to use it until some time next year because the same sensor is being used in some Sony camera body. So, Fuji has had to delay intro of a new model.
> 
> That's the story, and as I say, no idea if it's real or idle gossip or speculation or some mix of it all.
> ...



They have done that to Nikon for several generations. They have also done i in the widely shared smaller sensor market.

One thing to note, when a camera company gets a Sony sensor the camera company normally makes a better job of the sensor output than the Sony camera did.


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## ahsanford (Oct 6, 2015)

privatebydesign said:


> One thing to note, when a camera company gets a Sony sensor the camera company normally makes a better job of the sensor output than the Sony camera did.



The time delay is to Sony's imaging business advantage -- only their rigs have those best in class sensors at first. Consider: where is the Nikon D820 (or D900 or whatever) with that BSI 42 MP sensor? I'd imagine they need some time to learn how to best implement it, but there may also be a contractually-mandated staggered timing. 

Would a standalone sensor business care about maintaining such a lag, or would they just go for higher sales? I recognize it's all still Sony, and divisions talk to each other, but if the chips are down and the sensor unit needs to up its numbers, will it do so at the cost of its imaging division?

- A


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## Haydn1971 (Oct 6, 2015)

Does anyone outside of the industry really know who makes the sensors for each firm, a quick google suggests Sony made 21% of imaging sensors in 2012 - with names I've never heard of doing pretty well too - I can't imagine the market has changed that much since then.

Sony - 21%
Omnivision - 19%
Samsung - 18%
Canon - 9%
Aptina Imaging - 8%
Toshiba - 6%
STMicroelectronics - 4%
Nikon - 4%
GalaxyCore - 4%
SiliconFile - 2%


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## ahsanford (Oct 6, 2015)

Haydn1971 said:


> Does anyone outside of the industry really know who makes the sensors for each firm, a quick google suggests Sony made 21% of imaging sensors in 2012 - with names I've never heard of doing pretty well too - I can't imagine the market has changed that much since then.
> 
> Sony - 21%
> Omnivision - 19%
> ...



That's the thing -- things _did_ change. Apparently, Sony blew up in the last few years:
http://petapixel.com/2015/05/01/40-of-all-camera-sensors-sold-in-2014-were-made-by-sony/

- A


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## Haydn1971 (Oct 6, 2015)

ahsanford said:


> That's the thing -- things _did_ change. Apparently, Sony blew up in the last few years:
> http://petapixel.com/2015/05/01/40-of-all-camera-sensors-sold-in-2014-were-made-by-sony/



According to Sony in March 2014, they supllied 16% more sensors in 2013 than 2012

http://www.sonyrumors.net/2014/03/28/sonys-image-sensors-selling-like-lemonade-hot-day/

Which makes one hell of a jump from 21% in 2012, increasing to 24.3% (16% increase) in 2013 to 40% in 2014 - that's what, a 65% increase in supply in a single year ?

Also... In July 2015, Sony was deemed second in this article 

http://www.unifore.net/company-highlights/2014-top-10-cmos-image-sensor-manufacturers.html

The figures don't add up to the 40% claimed share when Sony (second remember), OV (first remember so more than 40%) Samsung, Galaxycore had 78% market share


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