Just as you are scraping together the money for an iPhone with two camera lenses, Apple may be coming out with a triple-lens iPhone sometime next year.
A news story out of Taiwan about the rising revenues of two handset components makers buried that little nugget as it reported on an expected recovery of a sluggish smartphone sales across the globe.
The Taipei Times on Monday quoted an analyst predicting betters sales for smartphones thanks to a demand of OLED iPhones and the “emerging adoption” of triple-lens cameras by some handset makers.
“Huawei Technologies Co. is expected to drive triple-camera lens adoption by introducing a lower-spec device for the Mate 20 model, while Apple is likely to launch a new iPhone model with a triple-lens rear camera in the second half of next year,” reporter Kevin Chen wrote, attributing the information to a note to investors last week from analyst Jeff Pu of Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co.
Largan Precision Co. which makes lenses for Apple and various Android vendors reported “better-than-expected” revenue for last month thanks lenses for handset cameras of 10 or more megapixels.
Largan reported the higher-priced lenses accounted for “70 to 80 percent” of the company’s over shipments in April, while lenses for 8- and 5-megapixel cameras were down.
The Taipei Times report is not the first to mention word of a triple-lens iPhone. Last month, iDrop News highlighted an Economic Daily News story with supply chain sources regarding a 2019 iPhone with lenses, including a 5X optical zoom.
So what would an iPhone with three lenses look like? Following last month’s report out of China, iDrop News speculated on the look and function of a three-lens iPhone and included concept images by Martin Hajek.
While smartphones can sometimes seem locked into a form factor, photography software and camera hardware are features with great potential for further innovation.
A third lens may increase the bump on the back of an iPhone, but iDropNews talked up benefits that could further doom sales of more conventional cameras, including low-light performance, 3D depth perception, a dedicated sensor to enhance image detail and an optical zoom that reaches greater distance.
Source: The Taipei Times and iDrop News
