It is really dangerous situation, only hope is that Korea-Japanese trade relations worsen with each week and inside Samsung one part of management also want to finally attack and destroy Sony (as Sony only has very good development teams, but sensor making facilities are slowly lagging behind Samsung ones).
Tensions start to rise
Samsung Electronics' System LSI Business Division is expected to boost its image sensor sales and market share as it secured LG Electronics as one of its corporate customers. Major smartphone makers including China's Xiaomi and Oppo also reportedly adopted Samsung's image sensors for their latest products. Therefore, Samsung's share in the image sensor market is expected to grow
http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=36970
If Sony won't be able to hold mobile and other small sensors share - it will be doomed with all their large sensor cameras also.
Sony used to sells billions of dollars worth of smartphone image sensors to Huawei each year. Now, Sony is considering applying for a license to keep selling sensors to the Chinese company.
Rumors are that Samsung will get the license, but not Sony.
Cartel is doing good for now.
Smartphone sensors due to this is among most profitable parts, that includes also main SoC, NAND and DRAM (we have cartels or monopolies on each of this markets also).
Omdia reports that 5MP and 8M CIS for low-end and mid-range smartphones are in short supply now. As a result, Samsung has increased the prices by 40% starting December 2020, while other CIS suppliers have increased their prices by ~20%.
And now cartel starts to work in full, as Samsung coordinates supply amount with Sony.
Note that actual smartphone market falls, so it is all lie that they can't make sensors.
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