Reports coming out of Sony suggest that the company is worried about the impact of Coronavirus on the electronics industry. The company has warned investors that it’s sensor and electronics business “could be affected enormously” if the epidemic keeps on growing.
Depending on the future progress of the virus, we cannot deny that our production and sales supply chain for the image sensor and electronics business could be affected enormously.
Totoki
Although it is difficult to say how much of the business is affected due to the Chinese new year holidays, the company is hoping to have a fuller picture once workers return to the factories.
This could be really bad news for the photography industry as a whole due to reliance on Sony sensors. Currently, Sony supplies around 50% of the sensors in cameras and an estimated 70% of sensors for smartphones.
I would not be surprising to see a knock-on effect on the likes of Apple and Huawei for their smartphones. This is not the first time a catastrophe in the far east has had a big impact on the electronics world.
The tsunami that hit the Philippines a couple of years ago affected RAM prices in the computer industry and also caused SSD shortages. We will have to wait and see the full impact of the virus epidemic to make a final judgment.
