Never mind the iPhone 14, expected to launch later this year – the rumor mill is already well into overdrive as far as next year’s Apple smartphones, which we presume will be called the iPhone 15, are concerned. And one of those rumors concerns the possibility of the iPhone 15 Pro getting a periscope lens.
Speculation about a periscope lens being incorporated into an iPhone began in earnest in early 2020, and the renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had originally forecast that it would be a feature of the iPhone 14 Pro. Since then, however, he has said that he expects the debut of such a lens type to not occur until the iPhone 15 Pro, a prediction also made by fellow analyst Jeff Pu.
The appeal of a potential periscope camera system in an iPhone is that it would allow for increased optical zoom. The system would achieve this result due to the light entering the telephoto lens on the back of the device being reflected by an angled mirror towards the camera’s image sensor. As a consequence of the change in direction in which the light travels, Apple would be able to incorporate a longer telephoto setup inside the device, thereby allowing users to zoom in to a greater extent without any blurriness.
Now, though, we have had further indication that this could actually be happening. According to a report from The Elec, the South Korean company Jahwa Electronics – which presently supplies optical image stabilization (OIC) actuators to Samsung for the Galaxy S22 series smartphones – has announced plans to spend the equivalent of $155.7 million on building facilities.
The report said that the size of the spending plan indicated that Jahwa had secured a new customer additional to Samsung, and that this new customer was likely to be Apple. The Elec cited “people familiar with the matter” as saying that Jahwa is expected to start supplying OIS actuators from its new facilities in 2023.
Several other factors – such as earlier reports that Apple visited Jahwa’s OIS production lines in South Korea in early 2021, as well as Apple’s tendency to request that suppliers build production lines exclusively for itself – would seem to further underline the high likelihood of this mystery new customer being the Cupertino company.
With OIS actuators set to be a key component of the periscope camera system that rumor suggests Apple wants to incorporate into future iPhones to improve their zoom capabilities, it seems that we have more and more reason to get excited. As always here at AppleMagazine, we will keep you updated on this subject with the latest information, as and when we get it.
