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Sony CFO says dual-cameras will takeoff in 2017 as iPhone 7 Plus rumored to gain feature

A mockup image showing the back of an iPhone 6 with a dual-cameraWith the iPhone 7 Plus expected to utilize a dual-lens system for optical zoom, a new quote has emerged from Sony Corporation’s CFO discussing the future of dual-camera systems. In response to a question during their Q3 2015’s earnings call (via Xperia Blog), Sony Corporation’s Kenichiro Yoshida stated that “the takeoff of smartphone[s] with dual lens camera[s] will be in the year of 2017.” These comments add weight to claims that Apple has been testing iPhone 7 models with two cameras including KGI’s report that iPhone 7 Plus models will feature a dual-camera system.

Not giving any company names (Sony provides iPhone camera sensors), Yoshida, Sony Corporation’s CFO, also mentioned that the “high-end smartphone market is now slowing down. So, that may impact the demand or production schedule of dual-camera smartphones.”

This line echoes the worries of investors who have worried that the past quarter would have been the iPhone’s first down quarter. Whether or not any of this means that the iPhone 7 won’t have a dual-camera system until next year, or will but production demands will be impacted, still remains a question.

Apple announced record setting revenue for the quarter last week, although it projected year-over-year declines next quarter. If Apple can reach the production levels necessary to release next-generation iPhones with the dual-camera system, this may be a significant reason for customers to upgrade from older iPhones.

Ben Lovejoy, has previously discussed the benefits of potentially having a dual-camera system, which could offer optical zoom, where 95% of 9to5Mac readers expressed some interest in the technology.

(Photo via: Cameraplex)

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Comments

  1. Multiple sensors and lenses with computational imaging is the only way that photographic quality is going to improve in this format. There’s not really anywhere left to go without it as manufacturers have pretty much already reached the limits of the material science and physics otherwise.

    4 sensors/lenses would be so much better though. :)

    • Tim (@tjskywasher) - 8 years ago

      The typical route for Android phones to go, not being satisfied with octa-core processors and all the other top specs for a stat sheet they’ll be pushing out phones with absurd numbers of cameras.

      • rettun1 - 8 years ago

        But in this instance, a quad-camera module makes sense, since such systems were made by the camera company that apple bought (forgot the name). They obviously also tested dual-camera systems too, but there are much more gains to be made if you have four sensors.

    • Ron Tussy - 8 years ago

      I beg to disagree on your assessment. Merging dual images actually degrades the image or video with merge artifacts. The purpose of dual modules is to assist with autofocus and provide user definable focus, range finding or infinite focus as well as point cloud 3D mapping. Increasing dB – dynamic range is the only way to improve smart phone imagery right now. Apple recognizes that moving under 1 micron does nothing to improve quality and that is why they are smart and not engaging in a pixel count war.
      -RT

  2. RP - 8 years ago

    Since we are hearing that the 7 will look very similar to the 6 minus the bands, could it be that the major redesign will be the following year? With the 7 being a kinda 6se?

    The dual camera is a year away, wireless charging for the iPhone is a year away . The economy for high end smart phones is not great, maybe just keeping the 6 going another year with a little lipstick, while the technology for the 8 is finalized wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

    • chrisl84 - 8 years ago

      Yeah thats a great way to combat sinking iPhone sales…..sell a dud to go along with iOS 10

    • Sean Karpa - 8 years ago

      At which point, my family and I, along with a lot of other people, will wait for the iPhone 8 and not upgrade.
      Wireless charging will showup this year, assuming the headphone jack is removed.

    • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

      As thing stands there will be 2 iPhone 7 Plus’s this year one with dual camera and one without. KGI has the dual lens model making up 25-35% of the 7 plus units.

      • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

        9to5mac is the only Apple rumor site i seen not mention the rumors of 2 iPhone 7 plus’s.Ming Chi-Kuo is very reliable.

      • Greg Barbosa - 8 years ago

        Link?

      • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

        I doubt this is true. It’s either all or none. My guess is that they are internally testing an iPhone 7 Plus with a single camera, and an iPhone 7 Plus with a dual camera. If they determine the dual-array sensor samples they are receiving from certain manufacturers satisfactorily work as they expect, and they are able to allocate the necessary supplies (tens of millions of camera modules with the dual-array), then it will be in all iPhone 7 Plus, and if it doesn’t, or they cannot allocate enough supplies, then the iPhone 7 Plus will house a single camera, and the iPhone 7s Plus will get the dual-array.

        To place a dual-array camera module in only one version of the iPhone 7 Plus, is to say that they have sufficient space in the iPhone 7 Plus, but they chose to only include it in a separate model, the reason being that they don’t have the supplies to put it in all of them. This is an illogical and unacceptable move, because it alienates certain Plus users (not to mention all iPhone 7 users), and it also creates even more confusion and diffusion of iPhone models. The product lines need condensed more, not dispersed more. The answer is to wait until supplies are sufficient for at least all Plus models, but better still, all models, period.

        The main problem with including a major, significantly superior feature in one of the phones which a lot of users do not want to buy, is that you anger many customers. It’s like if you released the iPhone 7 with a headphone jack, and the iPhone 7 Plus without a headphone jack, people would be furious. The cost is completely irrelevant, as people would pay for that if it were available in the smaller version, at an increased price, proportional to the price increase incurred by the other model due to its inclusion in that model.

        OIS was unlike this as well, because OIS isn’t superficially acknowledged, whereas the external difference in design of the dual-array camera, is.

  3. o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

    (Photo via: Cameraplex) Hmm lets hope Cameraplex is some random guy that can do light photoshop work, because Apple would NEVER design that. They will be in an oval shape, and no longer protrude. Apple would literally never separate them into to distinct entities like that. The very fact that people have done these mockups with the two separate is so sad. It’s not surprising though, when you look at virtually all concepts for the Apple Watch and iPhones.

    • Ivan - 8 years ago

      While I agree with you that whomever is cranking out these amazing mockups over at Cameraplex, this was never meant to be something close to a guess as to what the iPhone 7 dual lens system. I’m not an Apple Insider by any means, but I’d be willing to bet a large chunk of the family farm that the pic is supposed to simply go with the article. Nothing more. 9to5 needs to put a disclaimer for all the people who take each pic, post, and rumor as certifiable truth taken straight out of Ive’s file cabinet.
      (lets see how log it takes someone to say that “Jobs would NEVER let Ive have a file cabinet! Fake!”)

      • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

        My point was that someone took their time to make a horrible design.

    • Ivan - 8 years ago

      While I agree with you that whomever is cranking out these amazing mockups over at Cameraplex needs to hit up Photoshop 201 next semester, this was never meant to be something close to a guess as to what the iPhone 7 dual lens system. I’m not an Apple Insider by any means, but I’d be willing to bet a large chunk of the family farm that the pic is supposed to simply go with the article. Nothing more. 9to5 needs to put a disclaimer for all the people who take each pic, post, and rumor as certifiable truth taken straight out of Ive’s file cabinet.
      (lets see how log it takes someone to say that “Jobs would NEVER let Ive have a file cabinet! Fake!”)

    • Greg Barbosa - 8 years ago

      There is a catch-22 when keeping up to date with breaking news. We either spend time and mockup our own images, or rely on someone else. When someone else has made an image that can tell the general gist of a story, then we use it and credit it. This is more or less how most breaking news cycles release articles.

      I agree the design in the featured image most likely wont ‘t the final form we see with the next device, but it tells the story we try to convey.

      • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

        There is already an image that much more closely resembles what Apple will do, and Macrumors has been using it. It isn’t accurate in that it will be horizontal, not vertical, for both aesthetic, but more importantly, internal space arrangement. It’s my speculation that the dual-array model, at least, will have the logic board and battery switch positions in the phone, and the display connectors will attach to it on the top left of the device, instead of the top right, as it is now. This is due to the purported leaked image of the iPhone 7 display backlight which has ribbons on the opposite side of the display, which means the logic board connections have to be on the left of the device, and because the ribbons currently rest directly to the left of the camera module. I deduce that they needed to move to give more horizontal space for the wider, dual-array camera.

  4. eswinson - 8 years ago

    it’s not that people will be looking for dual/multi-lens cameras on smartphones. It will be the features and functionality that the extra lenses provide. I’m less concerned with the tech/spec and more interested in the user experience. Just as we saw a megapixel race with cameras and screen size / resolution race with phones, I think we will see race to see how many lenses can be put on a camera without any real effort being out into making it practical.

    • minieggseater - 8 years ago

      I’ve never been one for taking many pictures but having a good camera in my phone is important to me for the few I do take. Where all these small cameras fall down is in mixed light performance eg sunset with someone in the foreground. I appreciate we are at the limits of a small lens but anything that can be done to improve these type of pictures would be very welcome

  5. “takeoff” = noun, “take off” = verb. Just saying.

  6. Mark Neufeld - 8 years ago

    Greg. Takeoff is a noun. You want to say take off.

  7. Ron Tussy - 8 years ago

    Really old news here. The head of Sony’s sensor division stated in Nov. 2015 at Image Sensors Americas that Sony was working on a dual sensor design for Apple, even though Apple’s sensor array bought from Lynx is also in development. Apple never goes to market with HW solutions without having a compelling SW application driving adoption. So pray tell, what is the compelling consumer application for dual sensor modules? Distance recognition and point cloud mapping? Hardly a killer app right now.
    -Ron Tussy