Sony is making its cameras more selfie-friendly

Selfies. The unfortunate product of people taking pictures of themselves. But be that may, the art of self-photography has exponentially grown in popularity, so much so that the word is even included in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. So it really comes as no surprise that camera giant Sony announced today that they will be investing $345 million to increase production of front-facing image sensors for smartphones and tablets. Sony is said to ramp up production of stacked CMOS sensors at two of their factories.

Sony Corp said on Thursday it would invest JPY 35 billion ($345 million) to increase production of image sensors for smartphones and tablets, as the company courts handset makers to get more orders for front-facing camera sensors, used to take selfies. The Japanese firm said it will increase production of stacked CMOS sensors at two factories on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, while completing work on a factory in northwestern Japan it bought from Renesas Electronics Corp for a total investment of JPY 35 billion. Sony, which currently supplies image sensors for the main camera in Apple Inc’s iPhone said the investment will allow it to raise production by 13 percent to 68,000 wafers a month by August 2015, a step closer to its mid-term goal of 75,000. Imaging sensors are an area of strength for Sony, which leads the market ahead of Omnivision Technologies Inc, whose sensors are mostly used in front-facing smartphone modules that typically have lower specifications than the main rear camera.