Tokyo, Oct 8 (IANS): Sony captured the top position in the smartphone image sensor market in the first half this year with a 44 per cent revenue share, followed by Samsung Electronics and OmniVision Technologies, a new report said on Thursday.

The global smartphone Image sensor market led by Sony reached a total revenue of $6.3 billion in the first half of 2020, according to a report by market research firm Strategy Analytics.

The total smartphone image sensor market witnessed a 15 per cent year-over-year revenue growth in H1 2020.

Samsung remained second in the global smartphone image sensor market with a 32 per cent revenue share.

Chinese-owned OmniVision Technologies came in third with 9 per cent.

"The image sensor market was driven by the upbeat demand for multi-camera configuration featuring 2MP and 8MP image sensors in smartphones and further boosted by the shipment of high pixel sensors such as 64MP and 108MP image sensors in H1 2020,'' said Jeffrey Mathews, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics.

The image sensor market growth was slowed by the impact of the pandemic on the overall smartphone market.

However, the momentum around high pixel sensors and the use of multiple cameras in smartphones is expected to shape a strong growth path for the image sensor market in H2 2020.