Sony CEO Howard Stringer has a bit of iPhone 5-shaped egg on his face this morning as it was revealed late last night the executive accidentally revealed the strength and supplier of the iPhone 5’s alleged camera.
Spoiler: It’s 8MP! And Sony!
The slip up apparently occurred during an interview with Walt Mossberg for a piece in the Wall Street Journal. In the interview, Stringer put forth that a Sony plant based in Japan had been damaged in the recent earthquake, and that the damage would delay a camera sensor part to Apple.
Thing is, Sony does not currently ship sensor parts for the iPhone, leading rumour sleuths to deduce the CEO was talking about a future device. If true, this would mean Apple is dumping the OmniVision 5- and 3.2-megapixel cameras currently seated in their iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS devices, and onto Sony’s 8MP sensors. Sony is also rumoured to be in the running for an OmniVision takeover, so there’s that as well. So many moving parts!
Related to the damaged facility is the fact that Apple appears to be distancing itself from a June/July iPhone 5 reveal. Delayed parts may have played a part in that. We’ll see! [Electronista via AppleInsider]