During an interview last night, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said the ongoing instability in Japan would delay shipments of camera parts to Apple, and followed up by saying, “it always puzzles me, why would I make Apple the best camera?” This leads us to believe the iPhone 5 will have at least an 8 megapixel camera (like we see in many Sony Ericsson handsets), if not bigger. OmniVision is Apple’s current supplier for camera parts, and is getting rocked in the stocks on the rumour that Apple is switching over.
Stringer also recently revealed that they would have an Android tablet out this summer, further cementing the confusing partnership with Apple. Reps from either company haven’t done much to clarify what exactly Stringer meant by his comments, but some analysts think the whole thing is being blown out of proportion, and Apple will actually be staying with OmniVision, who have done admittedly great work with the iPhone 4’s 5 megapixel camera. Sony’s Exmor sensor is certainly nothing to sneeze at however, and I’d be curious to see if it could provide pictures with a bit less saturation. In the meantime, there are plenty of great iOS apps that can tweak the look and feel of pictures taken on an iPhone.
It still feels a little early to be talking seriously about the iPhone 5 (let alone iPad 3), but no doubt the pieces are starting to come together quietly in the background.
[via WSJ]