OmniVision's Production Issues Diverting iPhone Image Sensor Orders to Sony?
Last month, a report claimed that both existing supplier OmniVision Technologies and newcomer Sony had been lined up to produce 8-megapixel image sensors for the next-generation iPhone, with OmniVision said to be set to shoulder 90% of the load.
But Forbes today shares a report from FBR Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger, who claims that OmniVision has run into production troubles that may have caused the company to miss Apple's deadline for commercial-scale production of the sensors. As a result, Apple may have decided to shift the majority of production over to Sony.
Berger writes that he still expects the next iPhone - which he and others call the iPhone 4S - to have an 8 MP camera, but adds that "OmniVision may be having technical difficulties with its new CMOS sensor, possibly risking its iPhone socket supplier status."
The analyst adds his contacts says OmniVision "may have missed Apple's commercial production deadline," losing its lead supplier status for the image sensor to Sony.
The report notes that the image sensor chips are manufactured under contract by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which is experiencing unacceptably low yields on the chips.
OmniVision's stock is currently down about 4% after having been down as much 10% following the release of the report.
Popular Stories
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as "Ice Universe," clarifying several important aspects of next year's devices. Reports in recent months have converged in agreement that Apple will discontinue the "Plus" iPhone model in 2025 while introducing an all-new iPhone 17 "Slim" model as an even more high-end option sitting...
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Apple is scaling back its Hollywood spending after investing over $20 billion in original programming with limited success, Bloomberg reports. This shift comes after the streaming service, which launched in 2019, struggled to capture a significant share of the market, accounting for only 0.2% of TV viewership in the U.S., compared to Netflix's 8%. Despite heavy investment, critical acclaim,...
Last Friday, a major CrowdStrike outage impacted PCs running Microsoft Windows, causing worldwide issues affecting airlines, retailers, banks, hospitals, rail networks, and more. Computers were stuck in continuous recovery loops, rendering them unusable. The failure was caused by an update to the CrowdStrike Falcon antivirus software that auto-installed on Windows 10 PCs, but Mac and Linux...
