The explanation of the camera

The revenue in 2013 was nearly 600 million yuan. The revenue in the first three quarters of 2014 exceeded 2 billion yuan. The revenue for the whole year of 2014 May exceed 3 billion yuan. The revenue target for 2015 has been set at 10 billion yuan. This is the pace of O-film's (002456.SZ) camera business "Daily Cool Run".

According to internal statements of O-film, the competitors of O-film's camera division are no longer Sunny Optical (002382.HK), but international first-line camera module manufacturers such as Lite-on. Of course, such a statement might be scoffed at by the top management of Sunny Optical.

However, the confidence of O-film's senior management stems from the fact that the partners of its camera business are mostly world-class suppliers, and the camera production line of O-film has adopted fully automated production equipment. On the contrary, most of Lite-on's production equipment is still semi-automated.

Biao Ge believes that the confidence of the top management of O-film also stems from their judgment on the future market. Several leading camera module manufacturers told Biao Ge that by the end of next year, the adoption of three cameras (one front camera and two rear cameras) in mobile phones may become a standard feature for mid-to-high-end phones, and it might even trigger a market craze.

If the above judgment comes true, it will mean that the market size of mobile phone cameras will soar by at least 30% compared with today's level. Because the pixel count of the rear camera is definitely much higher than that of the front camera.

Regarding the issue of mid-to-high-end mobile phones using three or more cameras, there are still some different opinions among the leading camera manufacturers.

The supporters believe that since the design solutions of Qualcomm and MTK have already solved the problem of the underlying chip kit for the rear dual cameras, it has greatly facilitated the mobile phone terminal manufacturers and accelerated the launch time of new mobile phones with rear dual cameras. New mobile phone applications such as iris recognition and gesture recognition will also become popular.

The opponents believe that although mobile phones with dual rear cameras have been launched on the market, the product design is not yet mature, because the technical difficulty of the dual-camera design is even higher than that of OIS (optical image stabilization). In addition, there are relatively few related mobile Internet applications and software applications, making it difficult to form a consumption boom in a short period of time.

It's hard for Brother Biao to judge which view is closer to the reality of the future mobile phone market.

But the fact is that taking selfies with mobile phones has become one of the hobbies of many young people (including Biao Ge). Yulong Coolpad has launched a flagship model with dual rear cameras. It is said that Huawei will also release a new mobile phone model with a dual rear camera.

It is precisely because of the digital growth of O-film's camera business, the possible sudden expansion of the future camera market size, and the fierce competition in the touchscreen market in the past year that the camera module field has become a highly sought-after area for capital and new entrants.

A senior executive of O-film pointed out sharply that the vast majority of new entrants are targeting the low-end market and it is extremely difficult for them to have an impact on the mainstream market of mobile phone cameras. Because the 5-megapixel mobile phone camera module product is a watershed for investment.

The technical and capital threshold for the camera module market with a resolution of less than 5 million pixels is very low, but for the market with a resolution of over 5 million pixels, the technical and capital investment threshold is extremely high, which is beyond the reach of ordinary manufacturers.

Biao Ge learned that, for instance, the threshold for OIS is extremely high. A single AA focusing machine that must be used costs 4 million yuan, and one AA focusing machine can produce up to 80 cameras per hour at most. It is said that precisely because of this huge investment, only a few AA focusing machines were purchased from Sunny Optical and Lite-on. More often, manufacturers use self-made "homemade cannons" to increase production.

Interestingly, major mobile phone customers are very superstitious about expensive AA focusing machines, believing that only such expensive AA focusing machines can produce high-quality, high-pixel cameras. Therefore, this also forces some large factories to purchase expensive AA focusing machines to cope with the factory audits of major clients.

In any case, the sudden influx of so many new manufacturers into the camera market has still left all camera module manufacturers complaining bitterly. Excessive competition is almost inevitable.

The phrase "There is no worst product price, only worse" may become the key word in the future competition of the camera module market.