Tim Cook she tweeted that for over a decade le iPhone cameras are sensors built by Sony. Il Apple CEO visited the Sony factory Kumamotoaccompanied by the CEO of the Japanese company Kenichiro Yoshida. Cupertino usually does not announce its component supply partners.
Tim Cook announces that iPhone cameras are made by Sony
Apple has historically avoided talking directly about its suppliers, but lately Tim Cook seems to want to rhear the work done by some of the best members of the iPhone supply chain. The Apple CEO was recently at the inauguration of the plant TSMC in Arizona. The company produces Apple-designed chips, such as the A-series chips for iPhone and iPad and the M-series chips for Macs (and iPad Pros).
The computing power it is fundamental to iPhone. But so is photography. Then the CEO recognized Sony’s work saying “We have been partners with Sony for over a decade to create the best camera sensors for iPhone. Thanks to Ken and everyone in the team for showing me the futuristic Kumamoto factory today.”
For experts, this comes as no surprise. Several expert reports have talked about Sony’s work with Apple. And the repair site iFixit has published the serial numbers of the sensors, which harked back to Sony models. But this is the first public admission.
According to many experts, Sony remains the point of reference for the mobile photography market, both in terms of quality and quantity. Analyst estimates he values the company’s market share at 44%. Samsung is second with less than half, at 18.5%.
Tim Cook’s visit seems to underline how the company has no intention of stopping using Sony for its cameras in the future as well. In fact, it seems that Sony has developed a new image sensor that it uses a semiconductor architecture designed to capture more light, which we will see next year on new iPhones.
Sony serves many other companies (as well as providing cameras for its own smartphones as well). But the combination of the genius of Sony engineers and those of Cupertino seems to get excellent results every year: a collaboration destined to continue.