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Kodak Gets out of Sensor Business

fotografz

Well-known member
Its also about completely changing the business and in this case the small MF market and M9 market it may make much more sense to look at more consumer low end devices to support. Much more money in making P&S and lower end camera's than our market by a country mile. Seriously just think iPhone and having 5 million sensors to make or whatever that number maybe. Its about profit over and above costs to produce. the margins could be just so much higher to go low tech and in massive devices. Lots of possibilities here and I don't look at any of this with rose colored glasses. 35 years ago look at all the photo companies compared to how many today. It's staggering how many have hit the gutter.
Yes, it will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

There are a number of companies involved in making the smaller sensors for the mass quantity devices ... MacRumors has identified Sony as a supplier for the iPhone 4s ... 90% of which was originally thought to be allocated to OmniVision ... to what degree Sony is involved is yet to be determined, but it is a very competitive area and OmniVision's weak financial management and missed production deadlines is thought to be Sony's big foot in the door. The fact that Sony introduced the back illuminated sensor technology 2 years ago that is now in the iPhone 4s may have something to do with it.

BTW, that back illuminated sensor technology apparently has significantly improved low light performance on the iPhone 4s, and now Schneider has announced a high performance lens set kit for use on smart phones. I think regular P&S cameras are headed for Dodo land.

Then there is the possibility of a game changer ... like InVistage Inc's new Quantum Film ...

"The new semiconducting material was invented by Univeristy of Toronto professor Ted Sargent, who is now chief technology officer at InVisage. Sargent perfected a method of suspending lead-sulfide nanoparticles in a polymer matrix to form a new class of semiconducting polymer that Invisage has spent the last three years integrating into a standard CMOS process. Now it can paint quantum film atop a low-cost wafer that has the electrode array for super-dense high-pixel-count images, but without any of the expensive CMOS photodetectors that make up the bulk of conventional digital camera sensors.

"Our quantum film replaces the silicon used for image capture, but what we have really created here is a new semiconductor material," said Jess Lee, InVisage president and CEO. "Our quantum film even looks like photographic film—an opaque black material that we deposit right on the top layer of our image chip."

InVisage could have the next generation image sensor. "It gathers more light so you can either make a smaller image sensor for a less expensive cell phone camera, or you make a higher resolution sensor for high-end digital cameras," Marshall said. "It's a huge step forward and the market is also huge, so they will also need to overcome the problems facing any small company when trying to penetrate a large market."

Maybe with all this turmoil, this technology can also get its foot in the door?

The times they are a changing ...

-Marc
 

woodyspedden

New member
While the first response to the sale may be negative i.e. what happens to Leica, Hassy et al who use the Kodak sensors the truth is that it creates a vacuum in the MF sensor area and vacuums are always filled. InVisage as Marc points out may be one of the new players and who knows what Platinum Equity has in mind. Sony may well be interested in MF sensors and certainly has the technologies to pursue it.

In the meantime, the old stalwart Dalsa is available to all concerned so life in the MF world should continue to be great. Just MHO

Woody
 

msadat

Member
i meant to say ebay and not apple

why should leica look for a new supplier cause the owners have changed.


I don't think Skype was ever associated with Apple. It was developed by Estonian programmers back in the day.

Why Kodak sold their sensor division? Probably it was bleeding cash so it had to go. Probably it was not profitable. What happens next - they will need to turn around the company into black (if Kodak could have done it they would have done it already) or put it on the chopping block and sell it piece by piece. I am sure Apple, Google and Samsung will be fighting for patent portfolio...
 

msadat

Member
the new owners (i don't think) but the sensor business to shelf it but rather expand, make it better and sell it for a profit since this is what these guys do. i don't know why people look @ it as negative or that it has created a vacuum. its all there under a company who has a lot more money than kodak.

kodak is going out of business and the board of directors/management rather than sell the company as whole, are piece mealing it and holding on to their fat salaries and bonuses at the expense of shareholders. bad
 

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
It seems very clear what the motivation is in this case.

Kodak is hemorrhaging cash and considers their broad and valuable patent portfolio their single greatest asset. This is widely acknowledged in the business media and their public statements.

In such a position it makes a lot of sense for Kodak to sell off non-core-areas of their business to generate the cashflow needed to sustain operations (avoid bankruptcy) while they determine how best to leverage their patent portfolio.

I really don't think this development (by itself) should be taken as either a positive or negative indication of the sensor business in general nor the markets it services.

If anything, it's a good thing for the sensor division to be operating under someone new so that they won't be restricted by the cashflow issues at Kodak. Being part of a large diverse conglomerate is a great advantage - when the conglomerate is healthy; in this it was more like a fair maiden being chained to the mast of a sinking ship.

References:
5-year stock chart
3 Years of Annualized Operating Cashflow Decline
Biz. News/Opinion Article on Kodak Selling Sensor Division to Raise Cash
Quote from CEO on selling Non-Strategic Assets to raise cash to avoid bankruptcy in short term.

Doug Peterson (e-mail Me)
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