KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is adamant that Apple is working on a premium edition of an ‘iPhone 7 Plus’ that will come outfitted with dual-lens cameras for telephoto functions and today DigiTimes is reporting that Apple is already testing dual lenses for the handset sourced from three different suppliers.
The hit-and-miss Taiwanese trade publication has it on good authority, citing sources from the upstream supply chain, that Apple supplier Largan Technology and two unnamed Japan and China-based vendors have shipped dual-lens camera samples to 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, for testing.
“Since Largan currently supplies over 60 percent of Apple’s smartphone cameras, some market watchers believe Apple is likely to seek dual-lens camera products from other makers to lower risks,” reads the report.
The publication reminds us that some handset vendors like China-based Lenovo, ZTE and Qiku have already adopted dual-lens cameras in their phones.
A dual-lens camera should help differentiate a rumored premium edition of the iPhone 7 Plus from the iPhone 7 and the “normal” iPhone 7 version, wrote KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a note to clients last week. The second lens should provide telephoto functions so the next iPhone should have a 2-3X optical zoom, a first for the iPhone.
The next iPhone’s dual-lens camera technology should be realized through technology Apple obtained from last year’s acquisition of Israeli camera technology company LinX Imaging, the analyst wrote.
Source: DigiTimes