In 2020, the global smartphone image sensor market made $15 billion, with Sony No.1

According to the latest research report released by Strategy Analytics, the total revenue of the global smartphone image sensor market in 2020 was US$15 billion, with overall revenue increasing by 13% year-on-year. The top three suppliers accounted for nearly 85% of the revenue share in the global smartphone image sensor market. 

Sony became the number one in the smartphone image sensor market with a revenue share of 46% in 2020, followed by Samsung LSI and OmniVision Technologies. The top three suppliers accounted for nearly 85% of the revenue share in the global smartphone image sensor market in 2020. CIS suppliers drove sales of high-resolution image sensors.

Analysts said that the COVID-19 pandemic had little impact on the image sensor market, and smartphone OEMs still had strong demand for CIS. In 2020, these OEMs adopted a large number of high-resolution sensors and higher sensor quotas in smartphones of all price segments. Sony lost key business due to sanctions on Huawei, and Samsung, OmniVision and SK Hynix continued to take market share from Sony.

Strategy Analytics expects Sony's market dominance to be increasingly threatened as competition in the smartphone image sensor market intensifies.

Analysts believe that strong demand for smartphone CIS image sensors, driven by the expansion of multi-cameras and the superior photography capabilities of smartphones, will drive the growth of the image sensor market. However, the semiconductor shortage may pose challenges in meeting CIS demand.