Sony to invest in image sensor production for Apple and other manufacturers

Sony not only produces image sensors for its own cameras and smartphones, but also a wide range of other camera and smartphone manufacturers including Nikon and Apple. Now Bloomberg reports Sony will be investing 45 billion yen (US$376 million) in the expansion of its manufacturing facilities in Nagasaki and Yamagata, Japan. 

The expansion is to a large degree attributed to an increased sales of Apple's iPhones 6 series which uses 8MP sensors combined with an F2.2 aperture, on-sensor AF and, in the case of the iPhone 6 Plus, optical image stabilization. Thanks to the comparatively low pixel count the sensors in the Apple devices have larger individual pixels than most other Sony sensor equipped smartphones that come with sensor resolutions as high as 20.7MP, for example in the latest models of Sony's own Xperia Z series.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which were introduced last September, have contributed significantly to the total iPhone sales of 74.5 million in the last quarter - an increase of 46 percent year on year.

Source: Bloomberg | Via: Apple Insider

@larsrehm