Howard Stringer, Sony’s CEO, left the preverbal cat of the bag when he casually mentioned that they are providing Apple with an 8MP camera for the next generation of iPhone, the iPhone 5.
Stringer was speaking with the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg on Friday last when he was explaining that their plant in Senai, Japan, received damage from the tsunami. The Senai plant is where Sony manufacture some of their cameras. Cameras that may be used in the iPhone 5.
9to5Mac’s Seth Weintraub was at the event where he heard Stringer make reference to the Sony / Apple deal.
Our best sensor technology is built in one of the (tsunami) affected factories. Those go to Apple for their iPhones…or iPads. Isn’t that something? They buy our best sensors from us?
The iPhone 4 currently boasts a 5MP camera that is produced by OmniVision but it is understood that Apple turned to Sony because OmniVision would not be able of producing a sensor capable of capturing 8MP images in time for the iPhone 5’s launch.
It was rumored that Apple would unveil the iPhone 5 at the upcoming WWDC event in June but maybe the switch in sources in camera hardware, and the impact of the tsunami in Japan, is enough to push back the iPhone launch until later this year.
Follow our latest iPhone 5 coverage.
