Reports emerged on late Friday that, during an interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, Sony CEO Howard Stringer had accidentally confirmed that a Sony camera sensor plant in Japan had been damaged by last month’s earthquake, delaying shipments of sensors to Apple. which sets the idea of plans to supply an eight-megapixel camera for Apple’s next-generation iPhone.
However, Sony does not currently provide image sensors to Apple, prompting speculation that the electronics giant could be set to provide a higher-resolution camera for the next iPhone. OmniVision has been Apple’s camera supplier for the 5-megapixel camera on the iPhone 4 and the 3.2-megapixel sensor for the iPhone 3GS.
In February, an analyst claimed that OmniVision would be unable to produce an eight-megapixel sensor in time for the launch of the next iPhone and that Sony would step in to for at least the first wave of orders.
According to the report, Sony’s eight-megapixel sensor, which is used in the Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo, would suit Apple’s needs because it has a CMOS sensor for low light situations.