Sony CEO Confirms Camera Module Production for Apple? 8-MP Camera on iPhone 5?

[MacRumors]

According to 9 to 5 Mac, Walt Mossberg tonight conducted an interview with Sony CEO Howard Stringer at Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of the JapanNYC festival, and Stringer interestingly revealed that its shipments of camera sensors to Apple have been delayed by the effects of the earthquake in Japan last month. Sony is not currently known to be a camera supplier for Apple, as OmniVision Technologies has been reported as the sole supplier of image sensors for all of Apple's mobile products so far.

Stringer just said that their camera image sensor facility in Sendai was affected by the tsunami. Getting image sensors to Apple will be delayed.

Stringer's discussion of camera production for Apple was confirmed by The Wall Street Journal:

Early on, he raised the irony of Sony supplying camera components for Apple devices. It "always puzzles me," he said. "Why would I make Apple the best camera?"

It is unclear what devices he was talking about as Sony isn't known to supply key camera components, known as image sensors, to Apple; A Sony spokeswoman declined to comment and an Apple spokesperson couldn't be reached for comment.

Given that Sony is not believed to be a camera supplier for any of Apple's current products, the assumption is that the cameras are for an unreleased product that may be in the early stages of a production ramp-up. That assumption draws renewed attention to an April 2010 report from Rodman Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar claiming that Sony had in fact been tabbed to provide image sensors for the 2011 version of the iPhone, with the sensors reportedly coming in at 8 megapixels.

That same report also claimed that OmniVision would continue to provide camera sensors in a 5-megapixel variety for the fourth-generation iPhone, a claim that did in fact turn out to be true with the iPhone 4.

Article Link: Sony CEO Confirms Camera Module Production for Apple? 8-Megapixel Camera on iPhone 5?

 

[Doctor Q]

What other explanation could there be for his comments?

 

[wordoflife]

Cool I want a better camera. Should be a nice upgrade from 3mp

 

[Full of Win]

Apple does not like it when OEM's let things slip. IIRC, ATI lost a contract due to something like this.

 

[howzitjoe]

iphone great ipad not

Why such a great camera on the iphone and such loser ones on the ipad?

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

The current camera on the iPhone 4 is stellar IMO and many others... an equal 8MP camera would be even better....

 

[StuddedLeather]

I hope this is true!!!

How is Sony's track record with sensors though?
Let's go Fall! (Not even WWDC )

 

[iMattcotv]

Typical that Sony of all companies would leak this out.

 

[Full of Win]

I hope this is true!!!

How is Sony's track record with sensors though?
Let's go Fall! (Not even WWDC )

They make all of Nikons sensors, even the high end D3S and D3X dSLRs ones. They also made (or make?) Canon point and shoot sensors; at least as of a few years ago. Sony was one of the first with backlit CMOS as well.

Oh, and I think Pentax, if you want to consider them a camera compay, uses Sony sensors.

 

[Rad99004]

Android Phone Specs are out pacing the Iphone. An 8 Megapixel camera, bigger screen and more memory will keep me buying. IOS 5 with the rumored adobe flash would be great too.

 

[appleguy123]

Android Phone Specs are out pacing the Iphone. An 8 Megapixel camera, bigger screen and more memory will keep me buying. IOS 5 with the rumored adobe flash would be great too.

where was Flash rumored for iOS 5?

 

[lostngone]

Android Phone Specs are out pacing the Iphone. An 8 Megapixel camera, bigger screen and more memory will keep me buying. IOS 5 with the rumored adobe flash would be great too.

Adobe flash... HA!

The wizards at Apple can't even make a mobile device that will run that load of crap. I hope that crap-ware never makes it into any IOS based products.

 

[StuddedLeather]

They make all of Nikons sensors, even the high end D3S and D3X dSLRs ones. They also made (or make?) Canon point and shoot sensors; at least as of a few years ago. Sony was one of the first with backlit CMOS as well.

Oh, and I think Pentax, if you want to consider them a camera compay, uses Sony sensors.

Aw man I definitely can't wait now! We're in April so not too long for WWDC to see the preview or whatever.

I hope they have a new notification system going, yet I feel if so, they'll wait until the official announcement (in the fall) to unleash that. Either way I'm extremely excited and hoping for a true revolution (I'll settle for evolution if iOS 5 is amazing) with the iPhone 5!

 

[xriderx11]

WOW!!!! 8 megapixe?!!!!!!! i remember like 5 years ago when i bought a 200$ camera and it was 6 megapixels and it was considered amazing and here is the iphone with a 8!!! ITS CRAZZZYYY

 

[wordoflife]

WOW!!!! 8 megapixe?!!!!!!! i remember like 5 years ago when i bought a 200$ camera and it was 6 megapixels and it was considered amazing and here is the iphone with a 8!!! ITS CRAZZZYYY

I remember 7 or so years ago we bought a 3.2mp Kodak camera with SD card. It wasn't cheap either.

 

[cycomiko]

The current camera on the iPhone 4 is stellar IMO and many others... an equal 8MP camera would be even better....

Opinions are good things huh....

my iphone produces some ok photos but also produces a large volume of absolute ***** ones.

The higher mp may not mean muhc, but hopefully they will be improving the optics/sensor while at it. The nokia n8 may be a fugly symbian^3 abomination, but the sensor combined with the carl zeiss optics produces some really nice photos, even in low light.

You can also use the hdmi out for flipping throuhg photos, and not just the fakin stupid slideshow like the hdmi adapter on the iphone4

 

[lilo777]

Typical that Sony of all companies would leak this out.

What's your point? That competitors will now also use 8MP sensors? Well, they already have been using them for quite a while. Apple is simply doing a catch up here. By the time iPhone gets 8MP, other phones will have 10MP or more.

 

[Menge]

Easier explanation:

One last April 1st jab?

 

[HangmanSwingset]

I would be slightly worried about jailbreaking an iPhone 5 then. Sony might claim ownership of the damn thing and sue you for doing so.

 

[iRobby]

I can't wait to UPGRADE!!

 

[appleguy123]

What's your point? That competitors will now also use 8MP sensors? Well, they already have been using them for quite a while. Apple is simply doing a catch up here. By the time iPhone gets 8MP, other phones will have 10MP or more.

more MP's ≠ better photos.

 

[Slix]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

Here's hoping the new iPod touch won't have such a crappy camera.

 

[_Refurbished_]

Why such a great camera on the iphone and such loser ones on the ipad?

The iPad uses its camera's mainly for Facetime and Photobooth. Video quality isn't impacted by megapixels, like on a camera. In fact, megapixels aren't even that important on a camera (!). The quality of the lens and the software that's taking the picture are FAR more important than megapixels. Megapixel count is a marketing term to sell new products. (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm)

Taking pictures on the iPad is irrelevant for most users. I, myself, would never have the desire to take a picture with a 10" device. Seems pretty insane if you ask me....

 

[SteveKnobs]

Why such a great camera on the iphone and such loser ones on the ipad?

Because no one wants to take pictures with the iPad. I want to list all the situations where the iPhone would be much more accessible and easier to take pictures with...but that would be a huge waste of my time. It's pretty obvious.

I would be slightly worried about jailbreaking an iPhone 5 then. Sony might claim ownership of the damn thing and sue you for doing so.

This made me chuckle. Nice dude.

 

[firewood]

Android Phone Specs are out pacing the Iphone. An 8 Megapixel camera, bigger screen and more memory will keep me buying.

The competition hasn't learned that a huge portion of actual customers don't buy cell phones based on these kinds of hardware specs. And there's not enough money (bottom-line profit) in catering to those fewer customers who do care.