For more than ten years, Sony has been the exclusive provider of iPhone camera sensors.

As early as 2026, Apple may begin utilizing Samsung camera sensors, ending Sony’s more than ten-year monopoly as the phone’s primary photo sensor supplier.

Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo states that the phones are anticipated to feature “1/2.6-inch 48MP ultra-wide CMOS image sensors” developed by Samsung “as early as 2026.” It’s unclear from the report if Samsung would swap out Sony’s iPhone camera sensors for any other brand.

While Apple often keeps its component manufacturers a secret, CEO Tim Cook revealed in 2022 that Sony had supplied the iPhone camera for more than a decade. It has been reported in the past that phones such as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 8 may have had Sony sensors installed.

In light of software processing and Apple’s inclination towards producing “true to life” photographs (as stated by Apple camera vice president Jon McCormack in an interview with PetaPixel), the transition would not result in iPhone shots seeming to have been taken with Samsung phones.

However, 48MP is a welcome improvement over, say, the iPhone 15 Pro’s 12MP ultrawide and might result in better-detailed photos if the report is accurate. Additionally, the lens would be very helpful for the Vision Pro’s stereoscopic “spatial” films, which are produced by the ultrawide and primary lens working together, provided it was installed on a Pro phone—which is uncertain given recent reports of a single-camera iPhone 17 “slim” phone. Even in ideal lighting, the movies are now so fuzzy that they are rarely worth creating in poor light.

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