The demand for two-axis OIS motors for mobile phones has skyrocketed, and domestic motor manufacturers are scrambling to join the battle

According to Jiwei.com, "In the mobile phone camera market, the demand for two-axis OIS motors has skyrocketed this year."

Regarding the current status of the entire mobile phone camera market, a person who has been deeply involved in the mobile phone camera industry made the following comment. The above person introduced to Jiwei.com that OIS is divided into high-end customized OIS and general low-end standardized OIS. The former is commonly known as three-axis OIS, and the latter is commonly known as two-axis OIS.

It further added that the global demand for three-axis OIS motors will not increase much in 2022, and may even remain the same as last year, but the demand for two-axis OIS motors will grow explosively, and it is expected that the demand will double or even triple compared to last year. Looking into the reasons, an industry insider said that in the high-end market, the limited number of mobile phone orders has affected the shipment of three-axis OIS motors to a certain extent, but in the mid- and low-end mobile phone market, the penetration of OIS motors from high-end to mid- and low-end, coupled with the reduction in the cost of OIS motors, has driven the demand for two-axis OIS motors.

It can be seen that the reduction in OIS motor costs from high-end to mid- and low-end is an important reason for the increase in the use of two-axis OIS motors. For domestic motor manufacturers, accelerating entry has become an important measure for them to enter the next round of motor competition.

From high-end to mid-to-low-end

From the perspective of voice coil motors classified by their functions, voice coil motors are mainly divided into open-loop motors, bidirectional open-loop motors, closed-loop motors, optical image stabilization (OIS), optical zoom motors (Zoom), etc.

According to the current development trend, in order to solve the problem of blurry photos taken by mobile phones and improve the image stability of photos and videos, voice coil motors are gradually developing from traditional shrapnel motors and closed-loop motors to OIS optical image stabilization motors.

A few days ago, an industry insider told Jiwei.com that last year OIS dominated the flagship market, but this year OIS's penetration rate has penetrated more into the mid- and low-end markets.

Interestingly, this phenomenon has already begun to show up in new models of mobile phone brands this year.

According to rough statistics from Jiwei.com, as of March 29, 2022, mobile phone manufacturers have released a number of models, and OIS has not only become a standard feature of high-end models, but has also penetrated into the thousand-yuan model camp.

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"The demand for high-end customized three-axis OIS in 2022 has not increased much compared with last year, and may even remain the same. However, there is an explosive demand for mid- and low-end standardized dual-axis OIS motors, with demand doubling or even tripling compared to last year," another industry insider admitted.

In fact, Q Technology has also talked about it recently, that domestic brands will follow up on OIS this year. However, it is rumored that Samsung is the main force of OIS. According to SamMobile, Samsung plans to equip the Galaxy A series product line with OIS as standard in 2022.

QTech also mentioned that in the Samsung A series, the A7 and A5 were previously equipped with OIS, but starting this year, the A2 and A3 mid-to-low-end smartphones will also be equipped with OIS.

You know, Samsung's A series is its important mid-to-low-end product line and contributes greatly to its shipments. According to Counterpoint Research, Galaxy A devices accounted for 58% of Samsung's smartphone sales in 2021. If, as reported, Samsung's A series comes standard with OIS, then if calculated based on Samsung's shipments of 271 million units, Samsung's A series will drive demand for at least 100 million OIS motors this year.

So why are mobile phone brands so keen on adding OIS camera products this year? An industry insider gave his own opinion, saying that it is mainly due to three factors: first, to provide consumers with a better experience of smartphone products; second, the camera is still an important innovation driver for mobile phone manufacturers; and third, the unit price of OIS dual-axis standardized products has declined to a certain extent.

However, it should be noted that while the penetration rate of OIS motors in mobile phones will increase significantly in 2022, it also means that the new round of motor wars has risen to a new level.

Who is harvesting the dual-axis OIS motor market?

It is understood that the anti-shake technology uses a special mechanical movement correction structure design scheme and a closed-loop feedback system. When the camera module shakes, the anti-shake motor can quickly track and compensate for the lens offset angle and displacement through mechanical movement correction using the feedback signal from the gyroscope in the mobile phone, thereby obtaining a clear picture and achieving a fast and accurate anti-shake effect.

As OIS motors are rapidly penetrating the mid- and low-end markets, domestic motor manufacturers have also accelerated their entry into this market. According to an industry insider who has been deeply involved in the mobile phone camera motor market, domestic motor manufacturers face a large technical bottleneck in the OIS motor market because the technical patents are mainly in the hands of overseas motor manufacturers.

According to disclosed information, Sanmei Motor is the main supplier of Apple's OIS optical image stabilization camera motors. TDK and Magnetronics Electronics began mass production of OIS optical image stabilization motors in 2012 and 2013 respectively. However, domestic motor manufacturers have a very limited OIS market share and their technical patents are relatively weak.

"However, as of now, domestic motor manufacturers such as Zhonglan, Haoze, Xinsi Kao, and Bilu have all mass-produced OIS motor products," an industry insider told Jiwei.com. "Although domestic motor manufacturers have made certain breakthroughs in technical patents in OIS, the biggest problem at present is that the customer base willing to accept them is relatively small."

In fact, this is indeed the case. According to the prospectus released by Haoze in 2022, the revenue of Haoze's optical image stabilization products in the first half of 2021 was approximately 445,400 yuan, accounting for only about 0.18% of its revenue.

In addition, the gross profit of its optical image stabilization products was negative during the same period. In this regard, Haoze explained that the company's optical image stabilization is in the early stage of large-scale mass production, terminal demand has not yet increased, and the small shipment volume has led to high fixed costs, which in turn led to negative gross profit.

It can be seen that it is an indisputable fact that domestic motor manufacturers have a low market share in OIS. So, when the market share of dual-axis OIS in mobile phones increases, who is harvesting this market?

The above-mentioned senior person said frankly that it is still unclear at present and will not be revealed until the second half of the year. However, according to the author's understanding from the supply chain, Alps, Mitsumi Electric, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, and TDK are currently the motor manufacturers with the largest market share in the global dual-axis OIS motor market.

In the domestic market, China Bluestar and New Thinking have become the main harvesters.

Regarding the OIS motor market, industry insiders predict that in the next three years, the demand for OIS in domestic mobile phone terminals may double every year. The continued rise of OIS means that motor manufacturers without OIS technology accumulation will find it difficult to enter the next round of motor market competition, and a new market pattern may emerge for domestic motor manufacturers.