Summary

Camera sensors are very important to smartphones. A big drop in Sony's production of its IMX CMOS image processors can be catastrophic to the smartphone industry.

Smartphone factories contribute hundreds of billions of dollars to China's economy. China's government has compelling reason to see to it that Sony imaging sensors factories remain always operational.

Counterpoint Research expects smartphone CMOS Image Sensor products to generate $12 billion this year. This niche industry is growing at 10% CAGR.

As of H1 2019, Sony commanded 57.2% market share in smartphone image sensor sales. This is notably bigger than second-place Samsung’s 27.8% share.

Sony's dominance in smartphone camera components means Chinese and American phone vendors alike will never allow Sony to cease production of IMX sensors.