Mike Wuerthele
With the fall iPhone releases on the doorstep, new reports from the supply chain suggest that Apple has turned to its lens supplier for the next generation already in search of camera sensors in excess of 12 megapixels.
According to market rumors, repeated by DigiTimes on Tuesday, only Largan Precision meets Apple's yield rate requirements. Accordingly, Apple is booking production time at Largan's new factory in Taichung for "above 12-megapixel lens modules."
Apple has denied comment. However, Largan notes that production capability at the new factory will come on gradually, with small volume production beginning at the end of the quarter, with increases before the end of the calendar year.
Largan CEO Lin En-ping claims that the new factory is designed to produce dual-lens cameras, with large apertures. Additional capacity has been reserved for 3D sensing modules as well.
DigiTimes does generally provide accurate information from within Apple's supply chain. However, the publication has an unreliable track record in predicting Apple's future product plans. often predicting both timing and features incorrectly for upcoming products.
The camera order is not the first information that has escaped the supply chain about the fall 2018 iPhone. In June, LG was pegged as a possible supplier for flexible circuit boards, as well as the provider of L-shaped batteries for next year's release.
More immediately, Apple is expected to announce three new iPhones with the high-end OLED model, and two other devices expected at a Sept. 12 press event. Also expected is a refresh of the Apple TV adding 4K video as a playback option, and an LTE-equipped Apple Watch.
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24 Comments
This "news" is about as useful as "next iPhone will be better than its predecessor" - there's literally nothing to hang a hat on.
It would be a real shame if the .heif file size advantage was wiped out by unnecessarily large images.
Quite frankly, I would prefer better noise and dynamic range. Even shooting with lightroom’s RAW/HDR mode gives way too much noise when making more than a very slight correction for shadows.
The linked article has this quote:
Surely that has to be a mistake? 600 million modules per month would mean 7.2 billion per year. Will this factory really provide every person on the planet with a lens module within a year?