“Sometimes even the best-kept secrets can leave a trail of clues, and when the world’s biggest tech companies start buying components in unexpectedly large quantities, it’s a sure sign that something significant is about to happen,” Paul Monckton writes for Forbes. “This is exactly what seems to be happening right now in the world of high-end smartphones, with both Apple and Samsung reportedly buying up much larger than usual quantities of camera sensors.”

“According to a report in ETNEWS, components such as autofocus actuators, filters, memory and semiconductors are also seeing increased demand, fuelling speculation that both companies are incorporating additional camera modules into future handsets. Yes, that means more than one rear-facing camera per phone,” Monckton writes. “So what does all this mean? A strong hint comes from April this year whenApple bought LinX Imaging at a price of around $20 million. LinX Imaging specialises in “multi aperture imaging technology”, which essentially combines multiple lenses and sensors into single camera modules.”

“Multi aperture cameras offer many possible benefits including 3D imaging, artistically blurred backgrounds and the ability to re-focus images after the fact,” Monckton writes. “More importantly, they offer the possibility of vastly improving bottom-line image quality without the need for bulky DSLR-style lenses which simply wouldn’t fit into a smartphone.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Already the iPhone wannabes can’t come close to iPhone’s imaging quality – just wait until iPhone 6s/Plus!

SEE ALSO:

Apple’s LinX acquisition: The Israeli startup that will give iPhones SLR-quality photos – April 15, 2015
Apple buys Israeli 3D/multi-image camera company LinX Computational Imaging – April 14, 2015