The dual-lens camera system introduced on the iPhone 7 Plus this year is expected to stay exclusive to Apple’s larger 5.5-inch handset in 2017, reports KGI Securities’ Ming-Chi Kuo. The analyst issued a new research report on Friday, claiming that high costs and the need to differentiate high end iPhone models is likely to keep the feature Plus-only next year.
MacRumors passes along Kuo’s comments:
While an attractive addition for avid picture takers and professional photographers, the iPhone 7 Plus dual-camera is not a mass-market killer application yet. Along with its high cost (estimated at over US$30-40) and the necessity for Apple to enhance the added value of high-end iPhone models, we expect only high-end new iPhone models (30-40% of them) to have a dual-camera next year.
Note that for the dual- camera of iPhone 7 Plus, wide-angle CCM is equipped with optical image stabilization (OIS) VCM, while telephoto CCM only comes with general VCM. We believe the focus of the dual-camera upgrade will be equipping telephoto CCM with OIS CCM, so as to significantly enhance optical and digital zoom quality.
In addition to the dual-camera remaining exclusive to high-end iPhone models in 2017, Kuo also believes Apple will upgrade the system by equipping the telephoto lens with optical image stabilization (OIS). Currently, in the iPhone 7 Plus, only the wide-angle camera has OIS. This would significantly improve photos taken while using optical and digital zoom.
Earlier this year, Kuo predicted that the 2017 iPhone will feature a radical new design, with glass casing and an edge-to-edge AMOLED screen. We’ll put our usual “grain of salt” disclaimer here, since the handset is still more than a year away, but Kuo was extremely accurate in his reporting on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus in the run up to this week’s event.
Source: MacRumors