14 DAY TRIAL // In a research note offered to investors, Taipei-based analyst Jeff Pu warns that Largan Precision may face limited earnings, and that Apple is reluctant to adopt higher-density sensors. These two bullet points are somehow connected.
Taipeitimes.com cites the analyst in question as saying that “the camera specifications of the next-generation iPhone, dubbed iPhone 6S, will stay the same as the current iPhone 6 at 8-megapixels, limiting potential catalysts to push Largan’s stock price higher in the second half of the year.”
Apple has been reluctant to upgrade the imaging sensor inside its smartphones for three iPhone generations, and is now looking at its fourth iPhone with an 8 megapixel camera, if Pu’s claims indeed prove accurate.
“Industry sources” are what they are
Although the news sounds credible for more than one reason, readers should take the tidbit with a grain of salt. Analysts like Pu have sources whose accuracy and credibility vary. For example, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster has been wrong on numerous occasions, yet he and his firm are known to have ties to Apple’s suppliers in the Far East.
By contrast, KGI Securities’ Ming Chi Kuo, who also has ties to Apple’s Chinese partners, has been fairly accurate over the past few years.
On the topic of the retained 8 megapixel camera, Pu’s intel could pan out. Apple is not expected to give the iPhone a major overhaul until 2016 (when the iPhone 7 should make its debut), and the iPhone 6S is not necessarily in need of a far better camera. After all, the iPhone 6 can shoot some pretty decent photos and video.
Considering that the iPhone 6S will most likely retain the design of the iPhone 6, Apple might further improve the optics in the camera, and therefore would also have a camera upgrade to put on the new-features list.