OmniVision Notes

Feb 28th, 2012 Notes

OmniVision products are used in HTC Corp's (2498.TW) EVO and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc's (MMI.N) Droid X reported strong third-quarter sales.

At least two brokerages raised their price targets on OmniVision's stock, saying the company was on track to recapture lost market share in the smartphone segment.

OmniVision's 8-mega pixel camera sensors should be a major revenue and earnings drivers, said Canaccord Genuity, which rates the stock "buy."

NeedHam reports that OmniVision has lost the iPad 3 slot.

The following is an alphabetical listing of Apple suppliers in 2011. These suppliers represent 97 percent of Apple’s procurement expenditures for materials, manufacturing, and assembly of Apple’s products worldwide. OmniVision is not included as a supplier. This precludes their presents in the Apple products releasing this year. Maybe they will be in the 2012 list, just in time for the iPhone 5.

Patents Trump Products

Google's bid to purchase Motorola Mobility is a clear shot across Apple's bow.  While on the face of it Google may be seeking to marshall forces in the Android smartphone device arena, "What Google likely wants from the acquisition is Motorola's trove of more than 17,000 patents on phone technology. Google recently lost out" in Apple's group buy of Nortel patents...that won't happen again.

IMHO, however, I think Google will only succeed beyond Apple if they take a page from Apple's book and innovate ahead of the market.  Time will see if anybody can out-Apple Apple.

Unless they tell us otherwise, I think RIMM, NOK and Samsung's collective geese are cooked. Their patent portfolios (and Samsung's flash & screen production capabilities) are going forward more valuable than their products.  They similarly need to out-Apple Apple... but don't bet on it.

..TS.