Smartphone Camera Companies See Next Opportunity in Vehicles

South Korean smartphone camera makers are tapping the surging market for vehicle cameras to dull the impact of slowing growth in global phone sales.

High-end vehicles can come with as many as eight cameras to aid parking or trigger emergency brakes. That number has the potential to reach 12 once camera replace side-view mirrors, according to Mcnex Co Ltd, a phone camera supplier of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Korea's biggest car camera maker.

As the technology reaches mid-and lower-end vehicles, the market for vehicle cameras is expected to increase seven-fold from 2011 to around $6.6 billion sometime in 2018, said Techno Systems Research.

The amount can only rise with regulation like compulsory rear cameras in the U.S. from 2018 to stop drivers backing into pedestrians.

The spread of camera-laden self-driving vehicles is also expected to add to the demand.

"We expect the vehicle camera market to experience explosive growth," said Lee Hyo-cheol, a principal research engineer at Korean auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis Co Ltd, according to Reuters.

Cameras have to be far more robust for cars than phones however. They have to withstand tests that include days of submersion in water and 1,000 hours of temperatures shifting within seconds between 40 degrees and plus 85 degrees Celsius.

"Vehicle cameras are completely different from mobile cameras in terms of specifications," Lee said.

Cameras for vehicles go for around $32 each compared with $4 for phones, according to Mcnex. Prices could fall however, as volume increases.

Around 83 million car cameras could be sold in 2020, five times more than those sold in 2012, said researcher IHS Automotive. 

In comparison, shipments of smartphones, which usually feature two cameras, could grow 6 percent in 2018 from 39 percent in 2013, according to researcher IDC.

The market for vehicle cameras is already crowded, specifically for suppliers of the complete cameras comprising lens, circuitry, and image sensor.

"It is very difficult to enter the automotive camera market from supplying mobile phone cameras, especially the complicated front camera market," IHS senior analyst Helena Perslow said in email to Reuters.