It's no secret that Sony is the amongst the biggest players in the imaging sensor business. Aside from the sensors that go into their own cameras, they make the sensors that go into your iPhone, Nikon's DSLRs... you name it. Even Canon is recently reported to be testing outside sensors for the first time (and there's a good chance some of those are Sony's). Needless to say, all of this talk and excitement over Sony's sensors means they're going to need to scale up manufacturing. Solution: buy and manage Toshiba's CMOS chip factories.
While there doesn't seem to be much in terms of the transfer of intellectual property (Sony likely has all that it'll ever need in this regard), Toshiba is preparing to transfer all of its facilities and equipment related to CMOS chip manufacturing to the control of Sony Semiconductor Solutions, which will also give Toshiba's 1,100 current employees at these facilities (including electrical engineers who work on these chips) the option of transferring over as well.
As for Toshiba's own chip-manufacturing needs, Sony will now fulfill those orders alongside its own for the foreseeable future.
This move follows a very deliberate spin-off of Sony's semiconductor business from the great Sony Corporation into its own "Sony Semiconductor Solutions." None of these are small moves in the cutthroat arena of silicon manufacturing. It's clear Sony is making a big move to squeeze itself into a more lasting presence of market superiority.
For more information, read the full press release.
[via PhotoRumors]
Never a good thing when there is less competition.
In this case, I think it'll be okay. I think the "less competition" factor will cancel out the fact that Sony will now be able to produce even more sensors themselves and arguably for less. Therefore, either or both of these possibilities will help us: they won't have to pay someone else to manufacture their chips, which means they have to pay for them to profit from that, too...and/or they won't be up against as much of a supply constraint if such a hypothetical situation was/is possible.
Less competition always bad for consumer.. Soon companies like Nikon will have no choice..
Yes, less competition has the potential for leading to monopoly...
However, less competition / monopoly is only bad for the consumer in a non-free market -
although, for sure, current markets are far from free due to endless gvmt-regulations and compliance rules and laws and fees and licensing and tariffs etc.,... the computer industry is still and nevertheless one of the lesser regulated/controlled markets -
- less competition / monopoly even, can only maintain itself as long as the company actually provides service / product that the consumer accepts to pay for at the demanded prices -
Were, in this case, Sony, to begin charging more than customers consider reasonable, it would immediately breed customer resentment and disapproval; this opens the field for someone else to enter the market by offering that service/product at lower cost/better quality/newer/ more desirable criteria and characteristics - an opportunity for profit rarely remains not taken advantage of... as long as humans are left free to take the option; usually, it is gvmt that stifles such freedoms of entrepreneurship... well, big-industry-in-bed-with-gvmt-politicians, that is -
Monopolies can generally only get established / be maintained by gvmt-authority via special-interest-protections, subsidies with tax-payer moneys, bail-outs... preventing, or making it difficult for, other companies and entrepreneurs to enter the market to compete