“Apple has called the iPhone ‘the world’s most popular camera,’ a title originally earned by aggregating all iPhones together for counting purposes,” Jeremy Horwitz writes for 9to5Mac. “But while the exact sales numbers for each iPhone model are difficult to quantify, there’s no question that Apple has already sold over 750 million iPhones, and well over 100 million iPhone 6 devices. Those are huge numbers, and well beyond the typical sales of individual point-and-shoot cameras.”
“Few people appreciate that growing iPhone demand has created an unusual challenge for Apple: reliably sourcing the tens of millions of parts needed to meet first month demand for tens of millions of iPhones. To that end, Apple’s camera maker Sony had to upgrade its manufacturing plants twice this year to produce more of the CMOS image sensors needed for smartphones including the iPhone,” Horwitz writes. “Even with a partner as large as Sony, however, iPhone-specific engineering requirements and the risk inherent in brand new technologies have led Apple to hold off on using the latest and greatest camera innovations in its devices. Instead, iPhones go with thin, lower-resolution sensors that offer great overall image quality for their size, and never eclipse rivals on raw specs.”
“So what can we realistically expect from the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus cameras next month?” Horwitz writes. “Here are my educated guesses…”
Read on here.
MacDailyNews Take: Horwitz’s predicted “roughly 13-Megapixel” rear-facing cameras, would be a significant improvement (especially in zooming) to the already top-notch cameras offered in iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Yep, bigger sensor, more pixels, keeping the same large pixel size as last year. Same basic quality image, but in a larger overall image size.
While I think that idea, keep in mind that it inherently would mean a thicker camera package (resulting in a larger protrusion of the camera, or thicker iPhone).
I wouldn’t mind a slightly thicker iPhone if it meant longer batter life as well as a better camera.
Optical image stabilization. Even on the smaller model. That works in video mode too. With less field-of-view loss in video mode. That’s all the improvement I want.
(I know the reduced field-of-view is a software thing, but it may be driven by the need for software stabilization, and so less an issue if OIS works for video too)
Totally agree on both counts. I do NOT want the 6 Plus form factor, but I’d LOVE to have the OIS from the 6 Plus camera.
A wider video FoV would also be very much appreciated and would itself help reduce apparent camera motion. Wider is better – especially if you can zoom.
Can’t wait. Bought a Leica.
Nice!
showboat
Analysts will dub it “disappointing” and the stock will dive.