Known analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, has just revealed interesting details regarding Apple‘s plans for future iPhones and their camera modules. Apparently, the company will not be offering any major upgrades to its handset camera lenses till the iPhone 15.
According to a PhoneArena report, Kuo noted that the Cupertino based giant doesn’t plan on upgrading its iPhone camera lenses till the launch of the iPhone 15 series. In other words, we would reportedly not see any major upgrade on iPhone lenses till the year 2023. Back in 2020, Apple included a 7P lens with the wide camera on its new iPhone 12 lineup, which was an improvement over the 6P lenses used on the iPhone 11 series from 2019. This enabled the company to bring the aperture on the current models to f/1.6 from f/1.8 on the 2019 phones.
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As per Kuo, Apple suppliers Largan and Genius Electronics are currently competing to acquire a higher share of Apple’s lenses supply chain. This would have both firms likely compete by lowering prices to win over the iPhone maker. Kuo further added that “Our latest survey pointed out that Largan will increase the average capacity utilization rate of 1H21 from 50-55% to more than 70%, and will further bargain the ASP of mid-to-high-end iPhone lenses by about 15-25%. We believe that this price war will have a direct negative impact on Genius’ 1H21 order proportion, capacity utilization rate, and gross profit margin.”
Notably, the report also says that a new supplier is expected to join the lenses supply chain for Apple. This firm is Sunny Optical, which will provide 5P lenses for 2021 iPad and 7P lenses for 2021 iPhone models. At the moment, it is said that Sunny Optical will hold a 10 percent share for iPad lens supply and 15 to 20 percent for the iPhone lenses. This would add further strain on both Largan and Genius.
