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According to a new report out of South Korea, Samsung is increasing production of its ISOCELL image sensors at its Hwasung, South Korea location in a bid to clinch the #1 spot in image sensors worldwide.
However, this feat is definitely easier said than done. Current market leader Sony has a comfortable advantage over its South Korean rival, and certainly won’t go down without a fight. In the lucrative smartphone segment alone, Sony currently has a 46 percent market share versus Samsung’s much smaller 19 percent.
That said, technologically at least, Samsung is well-placed to take on the challenge. Its latest Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S9/S9 Plus devices all come with innovative imaging technologies and offer excellent camera performance built on Samsung’s own sensor technology.
The company rebranded its image sensor range as Isocell in June 2017. Since then, Samsung has not only expanded its high-end sensor offerings, it also designed low-cost image sensor modules that are easy to implement into devices by other manufacturers. Several of those, for example Xiaomi and Meizu, are already using Samsung image sensors.
However, market leadership cannot be achieved with smartphones alone. Samsung is also planning to grow in the automotive space where CMOS sensors are increasingly used in the autonomous vehicle space and for other applications. In this segment, Samsung will face stiff competition from the likes of Bosch and Continental.
Whoever ends up ruling the image sensor market, a large company like Samsung challenging Sony’s quasi-monopoly for image sensors can only be good news for consumers.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)