Who Will Provide the iPhone 5’s Camera Upgrade?

The iPhone 4 is no slouch when it comes to taking decent point and shoot snapshots, and 720p video, but it definitely falls behind dedicated point and shoots.

Recently, we’ve heard rumblings that the iPhone 5’s camera sensor could be bumped up from 5 Megapixels to 8 Megapixels.

As it turns out, OmniVision — provider of many of the previous iPhone camera sensors — has come up with an improved method of gaining higher pixel density while taking up the same amount of space.

That would make it a no-brainer that Apple would use this upgraded sensor in the iPhone’s annual refresh, but it looks like there may have been a slight change of plans…

In the past week, shares of OmniVision stock took a hit amidst rumors that the company has lost the bid to supply their sensors for the iPhone 5.

The fallout apparently occurred due to the fact that OmniVision won’t have enough supply of the new sensors to meet what Apple is demanding.

In light of these recent revelations, Apple looks like it could be linking up with an unlikely partner in Sony to supply its iPhone 5 camera sensors.

Sony already makes high-end 8 Megapixel sensors for their Xperia Pro phones, and word on the street is that they go toe-to-toe with OmniVision’s offerings.

The good news for OmniVision is that their stock did indeed recover quite nicely due to its strong Q3 results.

Unfortunately, if the news surrounding the iPhone 5 is true, the company could be in for some rough waters ahead.

What do you think about the possibility of Sony supplying the iPhone 5’s camera sensor?