TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo indicates several key high-end growth drivers will boost Genius over the next 1–2 years. These include a significant upgrade to Apple’s iPhone 17’s front camera lens, the periscope lens (which Apple calls a tetraprism) for the iPhone 16 Pro series, the high-unit price pancake for Vision Pro, the ultra-wide lens for the iPhone 16 Pro series, and the ultra-wide lens for the Huawei P70 series. The front camera of the iPhone 17 will be upgraded to 24Mp / 6P lens (vs. the 12MP/5P lens of iPhone 15 and iPhone 16). Genius’ progress on the iPhone 16 Pro’s periscope lens is on track. It will start shipping by the end of 2Q24 or early 3Q24. Genius is the supplier of the ultra-wide lens for Huawei’s 1H24 new P70 series. With the P70 series’ ultra-wide camera upgrade and an estimated 100–120% YoY shipment growth (vs. P60 series), Genius can mitigate the impact of the off-season effect. (Android Headlines, Medium, Twitter)
LG Innotek will allegedly be the exclusive supplier of camera modules to Tesla for Cybertrucks. Tesla plans to manufacture Cybertrucks only in the US and the South Korean parts maker will be supplying the modules from its factory in Mexico. Approximately 1M units of electric trucks are expected to be made. LG Innotek likely won the deal as its factory is close to Tesla’s in Austin, Texas. LG Innotek is also competing with Samsung Electro-Mechanics in Tesla’s ‘Berlin Project’. The Project will determine which company would supply camera modules for electric sedans that Tesla plans to sell in Europe. (The Elec, Digitimes)
Huawei has reportedly issued a “purchasing order” for the foldable phone supply chain and significantly increased its procurement of key components CMOS image sensors (CIS). The reason for this move is that Huawei has set a very aggressive foldable phone shipment target for 2024, planning to significantly increase from 2.6M units in 2023 to 7–10M units, with a maximum increase of nearly 3 times. Due to the recovery in market conditions, the price of CIS has begun to rise, and Samsung has raised its quotation by 25–30%. To avoid further price increases in the future, CIS has become Huawei’s primary target for stocking up, mainly purchasing from OmniVision. Due to the substantial increase in the shipment target of the complete machine, the inventory of related parts has also increased several times, which has driven huge demand for back-end packaging and testing. (CN Beta, Huawei Central, Weibo, CNMO)
