In the imaging business, lenses are the key, so we have had a lot of optical designers come to work for us. However, we have reduced the number of people in the development department as a whole. Of course, this is partly in response to the shrinking camera market, but we also believe that the future is an era of open innovation, of manufacturing through external collaboration. Of course, we will continue to develop our own core technologies and product points.
They will buy as many components as it gets instead of in-house development. But this is an ongoing process. The latest IBIS is a fruit of collaboration with Epson, they have used Epson's EVFs for long time. The CPU/SoC is the same thing - just grab an older Qualcomm design for few $, pay the production cost and rewrite the code for AF, AI, etc. stuff. It will be cheaper than own CPU design. Especially all these lithographics masks cost a fortune without enough sales volume. OM DS has to be cost effective as much as possible.