The market for specialized CMOS image sensors for cars, robotics, security, and medical applications is growing very fast and Canon is targeting them. A slower growth for image sensors in the smartphone market is expected in the next 5 years, though. There are quite a number of players in the specialized image sensor market, such as Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, OmniVision Tech, Canon, ST Microelectronics, Toshiba, SK hynix, ON Semiconductor, and Hamamatsu Photonics, to name a few, and every one of them wants to get a bigger share. Canon is going after very high sensitivity and very high mega-pixels segment.
The good thing for consumer camera market is that the hardware and software to match the new sensors needs to be current and that technology will trickle down to the consumer cameras, too.