U.S. Sanctions against Huawei Benefiting Samsung
U.S. restrictions on Huawei are having an adverse impact on Sony while providing an opportunity for Samsung Electronics.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on Oct. 28 that Samsung is increasing its presence in the global smartphone image sensor market, where Sony’s share amounts to over 50 percent. The Japanese company’s annual image sensor sales are approximately one trillion yen and Huawei accounts for 20 percent of the sales. The largest client is Apple.
Sony’s image sensor sales are predicted to fall from 240 billion yen in the second quarter of this year to 130 billion yen in the second quarter of next year. Sony asked the U.S. government to make an exception, and yet it is still unclear whether it will be able to show a recovery.
This is leading to an opportunity for Samsung. The latecomer in the industry has focused on Xiaomi, Vivo and others rather than Huawei. After the U.S. government implemented export restrictions targeting Huawei on Sept. 15, Xiaomi is increasing its smartphone production to take its place. Vivo, which has supplied smartphones cheaper than Huawei phones, is planning to release 5G smartphones in the first quarter of next year and Samsung has already signed a contract to supply its application processors to the Chinese company.
Samsung is aiming to rise to the top in the global image sensor market by 2030. Last year, Samsung’ share in the market was 18.1 percent and Sony’s was 53.5 percent.