How important are smartphone cameras in our lives? The one word answer: Very. One attempt to quantify how many smartphone photos are taken every day estimates it’s about four billion a day, or about 1.4 trillion images a year.

Many of those photos are taken using smartphone camera modules, front and back, manufactured and often designed by Ofilm. We put enormous time, investment, R&D and meticulous effort into making smartphone cameras that perform optimally and reliably time-after-time everywhere on the planet they are used.

Smartphones had already been around a while when Ofilm in 2012 entered the business of designing and manufacturing smartphone camera modules. By 2016, Ofilm had already become a large manufacturer in the world. Our market share has continued to climb. Our customers include the world’s leading mobile phone brands.

Smartphone cameras are, of course, far more complex, multi-featured and powerful than a few years ago. Ofilm – specifically its patents, manufacturing prowess and know-how -- plays a role in enabling this continuous improvement in smartphone camera quality.

We have R&D teams based globally to keep pushing boundaries farther, both in software and hardware. Key Ofilm smartphone R&D locations include San Jose, in California’s Silicon Valley;  Tokyo, Japan; Suwon, Korea; Taipei, Shenzhen and Nanchang in China.

Among the areas Ofilm’s engineers are most intensively exploring today are 3D imagery, augmented and virtual reality, optical zoom performance and next-gen image processing algorithms.

The use of Ofilm miniaturized camera modules extends beyond smartphones to include increasingly common installation to enhance driver safety in automobiles, gas-powered and electric. Tomorrow, Ofilm expects its camera technology to become more widely used including in medical devices as well as consumer wearables, robotics and smart home appliances.

With each successive generation of smartphone camera, manufacturing precision, tolerances and throughput become more challenging. To keep pace and pursue flawless build quality, Ofilm has introduced the industry’s high levels of automation, including process equipment designed internally. Advanced camera modules, like those built into high-quality smartphones, are now be manufactured by Ofilm with little to no direct manual labor.  These efficiency gains are enabled by – and further promote – the high skill levels of our workforce.