Himax Reports 50% CIS Sales Drop

Himax reports its Q3 2015 results and updates on the image sensor business: "The Company’s CMOS image sensors experienced a series of slow quarters this year even though it remains one of the market share leaders in notebook application. The reason for this is found in the weak demand of low end smartphones, the main target market for Himax’s 2MP and 5MP sensors. At the same time, the Company wasn’t able to ramp 8MP and 13MP at the planned pace. Overall, during the first three quarters of this year, CMOS image sensors sales declined more than 50%."

"Though a leader in the driver IC space, the Company is still a new comer in the high end CMOS image sensor business. Himax launched 8MP and 13MP in 2014 but missed the market opportunity due to a lack of some of the new product features for high end phones, notably Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF) that enables fast auto focus when taking pictures or recording videos. PDAF was first adopted in iPhone6 and has since become a popular feather for new designs of high end smartphones. The Company is catching up fast. Himax believes it will be one of the few players capable of providing PDAF-equipped CMOS image sensors in the very near future. The Company will report in due course."

Update: A graphical update from Q3 2015 Presentation: