Image sensor offers the highest price among the four parts, with the cost roughly accounting for 30-50% of the entire CMOS camera module.
In the lens domain, all manufacturers are confronted with profit straits. This is a labor-intensive industry and veteran employees are more than ever in shortage, which is especially obvious in the production bases located in Chinese mainland. On the one hand, the labor cost is increasing; and on the other hand, the raw materials upstream saw price hike in 2011. By contrast, the lens below 8MP witnessed drop in price because of tough competition.
In 2011, the revenue of medium-and small-scale lens manufacturers fell to varied extent, with their profits plummeting. But it was not the case for Taiwan-based Largan Precision and Genius Electronics Optical, both of which saw soaring increase in revenue. The two firms contracted all the lens business for Apple’s camera module. In particular, Largan Precision dominated the high-end market, while Genius Electronics Optical occupied middle-and low-end market. Genius Electronics Optical, the revenue of which grew by 136% in 2011, is the leading iPad camera module lens provider and the only supplier of iPhone VGA camera module lens. Nonetheless, the gross margin of the two declined.
In the camera module field, benefiting from “Apple effect”, the business of LG Innotek, as the major provider of camera module for Apple, grew by more than 100% compared to less than 10% in the entire industry in 2011. The three camera module suppliers approved by Apple include LG Innotek, Sharp, and Primax.
Sharp, also as the major supplier of Nokia, is the second supplier of Apple. For the Taiwan-based Primax Electronics Ltd focuses on low-end products. Furthermore, Vistapoint under Flextronics once served as Apple’s supplier. But the rising wages in Chinese Mainland forced it to sell its plant located in Zhuhai and narrow the business scale in March 2012. Vistapoint has been excluded in the supplier list published by Apple in 2012.
