Sony Reaches Big Milestone, Sold 20 Billion Image Sensors

Sales of image sensors of Japanese electronics company Sony have reached 20 billion units. Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing, which makes image sensors for smartphone cameras, has said that since making transistors in the 1980s, sales of its image sensors have increased rapidly due to smartphone cameras.

The company’s president, Yoshihiro Yamaguchi, told Nikkei Asia that mobile devices are a significant contributor to the bulk of image sensor sales. In the last five years, the company’s sales of image sensors have doubled from 10 billion to 20 billion units. This sale has increased due to increase in the number of cameras in smartphones. A few years ago, smartphones with dual cameras were introduced. Four cameras are also being provided in many smartphones. Yoshihiro said that Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing has three manufacturing plants in Japan. The company also plans to supply sensors for devices used in vehicles, smart ICT cameras, laser devices and data sensors.

Sony’s operating profit increased by nearly 73 percent in the third quarter. There has been an increase in the sales of the company’s music segment. Sony is also getting good profits from the gaming segment. However, the demand for its image sensors has decreased in North America. The company’s sales of PlayStation 5 have exceeded 65 million units. Recently the company had said that its net revenue could be more than $ 83 billion in the year ending in March. This is slightly higher than its previous forecast.

Sony’s PlayStation 5 sales were around 38 lakh units in the September quarter. Apart from creating entertainment related content, the company also supplies its smartphone components to big device makers. These include American smartphone maker Apple and China’s Xiaomi. Recently Sony launched PlayStation 5 Pro. It has twice the storage as the PS 5, along with an upgraded GPU, advanced ray-tracing, and artificial intelligence (AI) upscaling technology for better image quality. The PS 5 Pro has some upgrades in hardware compared to the PS 5.