Rumor has it that Apple may continue its trend of designing more components in-house, launching its own camera sensors and giving it more control over how the iPhone takes and processes photos. Over the years, Apple has gradually moved the design of many components in-house rather than relying on third-party component suppliers. Now, it looks like camera sensors may be the iPhone maker's next target component.
Mark Gurman wrote in Bloomberg's "PowerOn" newsletter on Sunday that Apple is considering an "internal strategy" for camera sensor design. Gurman believes that photography has now undoubtedly become the main selling point of the iPhone, thanks to marketing initiatives such as Shoton iPhone.
However, the design work may not be limited to the iPhone. Since cameras are so important to areas like mixed reality and self-driving cars, creating your own could be an opportunity to improve future Apple Vision Pro and the rumored Apple Car.
Bringing the design process in-house not only provides Apple with the opportunity to improve component functionality, but also to better plan future development and deeply integrate hardware and software.
This isn't the first time Apple has shifted design responsibilities from suppliers to its own engineers. Apple has designed its own processors for iPhones and Apple Silicon for Mac hardware.
The company's efforts to produce modems could see us see new components arriving later in 2025. Continuous investment in research and development of battery technology can make the iPhone last longer, but it is still in the exploratory stage.
In addition, the development of non-invasive blood glucose sensors may eventually be applied to Apple Watch. The project is said to be led by Tim Millet, head of Apple's platform architecture group.