• Sony may supply 8MP Image sensors for iPhone 5

    Sony may supply 8MP Image sensors for iPhone 5

    Samir Makwana, Apr 03, 2011 1532 hrs IST

    Apple's Image Sensor supplier's factory hit by Tsunami in Japan

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All eyes are set on Worldwide Developers Conference starting on June 5 where Apple is expected to announce the next generation iPhone 5. Sir Howard Stringer, president and CEO of Sony Corp, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, is said to have slipped Sony s plans about 8 megapixel image sensors to be supplied to Apple for next generation iPhone 5. Seth Weintraub, owner of 9to5Mac blog noted that Stringer stated that the factory making image sensors for Apple was affected by the Tsunami in Japan. 

Apple usually sources the image sensors for its iOS devices from OmniVision that offered backside-illuminated 5 megapixel CMOS Image sensor in the iPhone 4. OmniVision Factory located in Japan is reported to be affected by Tsunami and hence there has been a delay in supply of image sensors for Apple products.

According to report by WSJ, Stringer casually stated -
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.

As opposed to that, Weintraub had paraphrased Stringer s mention as:
Our best sensor technology is built in one of the (tsunami) affected factories.  Those go to Apple for their iPhones or iPads.  Isn t that something?  They buy our best sensors from us?

Sony also manufactures backside-illuminated Exmor R image sensors which were recently used in the current Xperia Arc model. Hence it might have been an indirect offer from Sony to Apple for buying image sensors from them instead of getting the iPhone 5 shipment delayed. As of now there s no second reported to confirm what Weintraub heard at the interview but it looks ambiguous why Sony would supply parts to one of its rivals. 

From the mixed reports available so far, I believe iPhone 5 indeed will have 8 megapixel Image Sensor. However, there s no clarity whether those Image Sensors would be from OmniVision or Sony. 


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Discussion Board
(13) Comments
ramu
,jammu, on Apr 04, 2011 05:27 PM
is that Psycho Sid?
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Krftwrk
,Los angeles, on Apr 03, 2011 05:22 PM
They are talking about a camera! Hardware not software. You comment is irrelevant here, I really don't know why people hate on the iPhone some people are just excited about it the same way people get excited over video game releases or a new car release...or a rare pair of jordans. If people love electronics then so be it. Don't belittle someone because they have a passion for something. Honestly it sounds Like you're an angry t-mobile Android fanboy! I'm just saying.
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Mitch
,Leeds, on Apr 03, 2011 06:45 PM
and that comment make you sound like an apple loving idiot. Lets face it the iphone 5 will probably feature a "New ergonomic" design and new features that are readily available via the app store but will fudementaly be same. I have friends who wont use anything other then a iPhone and ive shown thm my desire hd and they have said its a much better phone then theres but they just love Apple whatever the cost. Apple haven't come up with anything new in years. Dont dare say ipad cause its just a fat blown up over price iphone
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Harrakirri
,Bangalore, on Apr 04, 2011 02:18 PM
Mitch if Apple hadn't released iPhone then, you couldn't have dreamed about "Android". If iPad was not there you couldn't have afforded any Tablets. If apple hadn't taken the initiative, you couldn't have imagined about affordable touch screen phones. Its the INITIATIVE which is important and APPLE has dared to do that.
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Jelo
,Portland, on Apr 04, 2011 01:57 AM
Wow. Hating people because they prefer a certain brand of consumer product that you don't particularly care for. And getting so angry about it too. Really?
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Mark Sinclair
,Crown Point, on Apr 04, 2011 01:29 AM
WOW!!!!! 8 MEGAPIXELS!!!! More iCrap. My EVO 4G came out LAST June, and I have an 8 megapixel camera. How is this even news? 8 megapixels has become pretty standard for super phones in the past half year or so. The iPhone came out June 24, and the EVO came out June 4 2010, so it's not like the EVO came out months later to outspec it, It came out 20 days before!!! More proof that Apple can churn out mediocre devices and still the iSheep will come.
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Benjamin
,Dc, on Apr 03, 2011 08:21 PM
people are so mad @ apple, yet their products sell out, people pay extra, stand in lines to get them, and did I mention that apple is trading at $393 a share? Men lie women lie, numbers don't. These other companies wouldn't even have a tablet to sell; who remembers the 900 Sony mini computer that didnt make phone calls? They were selling that until a week after the first iPhone dropped. Discontinued ZUNE, discontinued Walkman, MIGHTY Sony reduced to a camera supplier in a market it cannot even enter. Pathetic. Stop hating cause you cannot afford apple, or were locked into a verizon contract when the first one dropped in 07. Biggest whiny baby statement "apple won't let you do what you want to THEIR device and THEIR network. As soon as you jailbroke MY PHONE...I would have had it say nice waste of 300 bucks...then brick itself. Apple is selling MILLIONS IN ONE DAY....can't criticize that.
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scott
,fort myers, on Apr 04, 2011 12:30 AM
No but you can critcize the masses that flock to buy into the hype that is the iphone. I already have an 8mp camera on my droid x, as well as flash installed. Oh, and I didn't have to jailbreak it in order to get the apps and functions that I want. As for their market share price, I would expect to see that drop after kodak rapes them for patent infringement.
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fed up
,somewhere, on Apr 03, 2011 04:56 PM
Enough garbage about iphone. Get a life people, you sound like morons!
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Krftwrk
,Los Angeles, on Apr 03, 2011 05:51 PM
Or maybe someone who waited so long for the verizon iPhone which is a major fail as far as iPhones go...or maybe it's the fact that verizon won't be seeing an iPhone 5?
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drenni
,ft lauderdale, on Apr 03, 2011 05:17 PM
Well, they did.....: Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal Main article: Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal In 2005, Sony BMG published CDs with copy protection and digital rights management software called Extended Copy Protection, created by software company First 4 Internet. The software included a music player but silently installed a rootkit which limited the user's ability to access the CD.[10] Software engineer Mark Russinovich, who created the rootkit detection tool RootkitRevealer, discovered the rootkit on one of his computers.[1] The ensuing scandal raised the public's awareness of rootkits.[11] To cloak itself, the rootkit hid from the user any file starting with "$sys$". Soon after Russinovich's report, malware appeared which took advantage of that vulnerability of affected systems.[1] One BBC analyst called it a "public relations nightmare."[12] Sony BMG released patches to uninstall the rootkit, but it exposed users to an even more serious vulnerability.[13] The company eventually recalled the CDs. In the United States, a class-action lawsuit was brought against Sony BMG.[14]
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Darr247
,Onondaga, on Apr 03, 2011 04:17 PM
Just one more reason not to buy an iphone. I have not willingly given sony one penny since 2005 after they put a root kit on my daughter's computer when she put one of their CDs in it to access the 'enhanced' content and I had to format the hard drive and reinstall windows to get rid of it.
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jim
,lincoln, on Apr 03, 2011 04:51 PM
hmmm sounds like that's something a multi million pound company would be interested in doing... its more likely the disk was swapped at some point. don't be so stupid.
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