There have been a fair number of reports up until now about Apple wanting to make more if its own hardware in-house. This includes the likes of its own all-in-one wireless chip, as well as its own processor, but so far only the latter has manifested via the Apple Silicon series. The latest item that the fruit company want to develop on its own may be camera sensors.
This comes via the weekly Bloomberg newsletter Power On by Mark Gurman. It’s only a small mention in the newsletter as a whole, and so details are on the scarce side of things. But what is mentioned is that “photography has become one of the most critical selling points of its iPhones, and that the technology is core to future developments in the mixed-reality and autonomous-driving industries”.
Indeed, photography has indeed been a pretty big key selling point, taking up a big chunk of each presentation when Apple launches the iPhone of the year. As with its own chips, developing them in-house makes a ton of sense, from costs to better hardware and software optimisation. And for now, it makes sense that the fruit company sees its potential in mixed-reality spaces, what with its own Vision Pro headset having been officially announced.
What does seem pretty far-fetched for now is that bit on autonomous driving. Last we heard anything about the Apple self-driving car was back in 2021 with the now very optimistic-sounding 2025 debut plan. But to be fair, it doesn’t look like we will be seeing these camera sensors made by the fruit brand itself anytime soon either.
Also mentioned in the newsletter are efforts by Apple on its multipurpose wireless chip, as well as microLED screens. To reiterate past reports, these will supposedly show up on its smartwatches first, specifically on the Ultra variants, before going to other devices like iPhones.
(Source: Bloomberg)
