While technology analysts debate whether this year's flagship Apple launch will be called the iPhone 7 or the iPhone 6S, the company itself is apparently preparing for a more substantial product revamp next year.
"Apple has a few tricks up its sleeve for 2016," says Yahoo news. "The company has plans to launch a new, completely redesigned iPhone next year — and it won't be the iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus we’re all expecting."
Today's report rekindles rumours that Apple is working on a compact version of the iPhone 7, which will have a four-inch screen. The iPhone 6, which went on sale last September, comes in two screen sizes, measuring 4.7 and 5.5 inches.
According to Taiwanese website Economic Daily News, a component manufacturer called AUO has been recruited by Apple to supply four-inch screens for the small version of the iPhone 7.
The new model is likely to be named the iPhone 7C, the report suggests, reviving the brand suffix last used on the iPhone 5C – a cheaper, plastic-backed version of the smartphone. So far there has been no similar version of the iPhone 6.
The Taiwanese report suggests that AUO will begin to deliver the four-inch screens in the first quarter of 2016, "which would suggest that Apple plans to release the iPhone 7C alongside the other two iPhone 7 models later in the year," Yahoo says.
No other details about the prospective specification of the iPhone 7C has emerged, and Apple never comments on new products in advance of their official unveiling.
iPhone 7: super-HD camera for Apple smartphone
June 5
Apple's new iPhone will feature a 12-megapixel camera, a substantial leap forward from the photographic capabilities of the existing model, according to the latest reports.
Other reports suggest that the iPhone 7 (or iPhone 6S – the technology world is in two minds about what Apple will call it) will incorporate a "revolutionary" new type of camera built by an Israeli company bought by Apple earlier this year for $20m (£13.2m).
The new phone is widely expected to make its debut in late summer or autumn this year. Apple does not comment on products in development, but the company has upgraded its flagship iPhone model in September or October for several consecutive years, and it would be a huge suprise if no new handset appeared.
According to Kevin Wang, the research director of analyst IHS Technology, this year's upgrade will focus on the camera, increasing image resolution from eight megapixels for the iPhone 6 to twelve megapixels for the iPhone 6S or 7.
That follows a similar claim made by Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with a good track record of revealing pre-launch information about Apple products. He said two weeks ago that the iPhone 7 would come with a 12-megapixel camera.
If the reports prove true, the pixel count on Apple's smartphone would move closer to that of many of its rivals. The Sony Xperia Z4, for example, has a 20.7-megapixel camera.
Apple has traditionally remained aloof from the pixel arms race, but commentators say that it cannot hold out any longer.
"The iPhone 6 makes very good use of its relatively modest camera hardware, holding its own against much higher on-paper specifications," says Forbes, "but the time has come to step into 2015 and increase the level of detail."
However, the new iPhone 7 sensor may come with a sting in its tale, according to Business Insider. "Although Wong says Apple will add more megapixels, he also notes that they will be smaller, which means they may not be able to capture as much light."
That could result in a "new, improved" camera that in certain low-light conditions is less accomplished than the model it replaces.
'DSLR-level' images
The suggestion that the iPhone 7 camera upgrade will involve more than a few extra megapixels of resolution originated in February, when respected tech blogger John Gruber passed on reports he had heard that the new phone would come with a "weird dual-lens system" that would produce images comparable with those captured by an SLR camera.
Little more was heard of the rumour, until two months later, when Apple bought Israeli company LinX, which specialises in small, high-quality image sensors.
Now, reports appear to confirm that the iPhone 7 is likely to be the beneficiary of that purchase, which will allow Apple to improve the camera on its flagship smartphone in several significant ways.
"Apple itself has not sent out confirmation about what it was planning to do with the iPhone 7 or the imaging company, but our sources tell us that the purchase was made with the new iPhone in mind," says tech news website GeekSnack.
"That leads us to believe that the iPhone 7 will improve smartphone photography considerably, as our sources tell us that the camera setup on the iPhone 7 will be revolutionary and a first in the industry."
The report gives no more detail about its "sources", except to say that they are "trustworthy insiders".
LinX's technology, which replaces the single sensory used by most smartphone cameras with several much smaller ones, "provides better performance in terms of low light shooting, HDR, refocusing, color fidelity, and shutter lag," according to an analyst with the investment bank Macquarie quoted by Business Insider. It would also " improve sensitivity and sharpness in a low-light environment, and enable 3-D object modeling".
One further advantage is that LinkX lenses take up less space, which would allow Apple to abandon the protruding camera lens of the iPhone 6. The design was criticised at launch for spoiling the sleek lines of the handset, and exposing the lens coating to scratches.
Pixels: quantity versus quality
While most camera-makers boast of the number of megapixels their image sensors can capture, pixel count alone is not necessarily a good guide to photographic chops.
Alongside the quality of the lens and the sophistication of the image-processing software, the physical size of the sensor is crucial – all else being equal, a large five-megapixel sensor will produce better quality images than a small five-megapixel sensor, particularly in low-light conditions. That's because a bigger sensor can capture more light.
"Larger sensors are the reason that 8 megapixels from a digital SLR camera (or 5 or 13) best those 8 megapixels from a smartphone camera," explains CNET. "You get roughly the same number of pixels, but the pixels on the dSLR get to be larger, and therefore let in more light. More light (generally) equals less-noisy images and greater dynamic range."
How else could Apple improve the iPhone 7 camera?
Only the larger of Apple's two current iPhones, the 6 Plus, features, optical image stabilisation – which helps to prevent blurry images, especially in low-light conditions. The most obvious improvement would therefore be to extend that feature to the smaller version of the iPhone 6S or 7 as well, although size constraints may prove challenging.
Here are three other ways in which Apple could beef up its smartphone's camera:
Two lenses: A few months ago rumours started circulating that apple was experimenting with a dual-lens camera that would bring DSLR-level photography to the iPhone 7. Details were sketchy and much of the tech community was sceptical, but many analysts still believe that Apple is planning a substantial upgrade for its smartphone cameras.
Faster camera launch: One simple way in which Apple might improve the camera is to speed up the launch process and make it more accessible whatever you're doing with your phone at the moment a photographic opportunity arises. The iPhone 6 is no laggard, but rivals from Samsung, LG and Sony have recently overtaken Apple's launch procedure. Shaving a second or two off the process may not make any headlines, but it would please millions of iPhone photographers.
Faster, brighter lens: The aperture of the lens on the iPhone 6 – which determines how much light the camera sensor receives – is a respectable f/2.2, but it has been superseded by rival smartphone makers offering cameras with f/1.8 apertures. "While these might seem like very small numerical differences, the extra light gathering capability is really rather large," says Forbes. "When all other parameters remain equal, an aperture of f/1.8 gathers 50 per cent more light than an aperture of f/2.2." Stepping up the brightness of the lens could help to counteract the effect of reducing the iPhone 7's pixel sensor size (see above).
Variable aperture: This would allow Apple to take a substantial step towards the "DSLR quality images" touted by many commentators. The size of the camera lens aperture – in simple terms, the hole through which light passes to reach the sensor – determines how much of the image is in focus. A wide aperture produces a narrow depth of field – which means, for example, that a pin-sharp subject in the foreground of a photo will stand out against an out-of-focus background. A narrow aperture keeps much more of the image in focus, which is useful in landscape photography. Equipping the iPhone 7 with a variable aperture would give smartphone photographers the kind of controls over depth of field that SLR cameras have offered for decades.
Ultrahigh-definition 4K video: Most of Apple's rivals already offer this feature, but the relatively modest eight-megapixel camera on the iPhone 6 isn't up to the job. That may not be too much of a concern to most consumers, and Apple has often proved resistant to adding features simply for the sake of a higher number on the specs sheet, but it is boosting the iPhone 7's pixel count for other reasons it may as well add 4K video too.
Better image stabilization: A patent application suggests that Apple is working on an all-new optical image stabilization system. While the current iPhone 6 Plus uses data from the handset's gyroscope to counteract the effect of camera shake, the proposed new system would be far more mechanical – and closer in execution to the image-stabilization systems used in SLR cameras. According to the technical document filed by Apple, the new technology would include "a plurality of movable lens elements arranged to be moved independent of one another".
Optical zoom: Most smartphones, including the iPhone, have a zoom function on their cameras, but they are digital rather than optical. What that means in practice is that zooming actually just magnifies one part of the photo without increasing its resolution, leading to a fall in image quality. The patent application mentioned above raises the prospect of an optical zoom on the iPhone 7, meaning that magnification is achieved using moving lenses rather than digital trickery, and that the camera's full resolution is brought to bear on all images, whatever zoom settings are used.
3-D camera: This is certainly a long-shot for the iPhone 7, but not entirely out of the question for a future Apple phone. The company has recently bought LinX, an Israeli company that specialises in high-tech camera sensors. That, according to Business Insider, could have a dramatic effect on the camera capability of the iPhone 7. "LinX's technology won't only enable the iPhone to take better, sharper images – it could also allow the phone to capture three-dimensional photos, eliminate an annoying aesthetic problem where the cameras on the latest iPhones stick out, and solve a bunch of other problems." Having spent $20m acquiring the company, Apple is bound to be looking at ways of turning the investment into a profit, but whether the technology makes it into the iPhone 7 may well depend on when that handset comes out. If it debuts this year then it's unlikely that Apple would get a LinX camera unit into production in time, but if, as initially believed, the iPhone 7 is scheduled for 2016, that might allow enough development time.
