Sony Executive Spills the Beans About Upcoming ‘Dual-Lens’ Camera Technology

According to comments made by one of the Japanese tech company’s leading executives, Apple’s long-standing camera supplier, Sony, is reportedly expecting its dual-lens camera technology to launch with “major smartphone players” within the coming year.

The statement comes to us courtesy of Sony Chief Financial Officer, Kenichiro Yoshida. In Sony’s latest earnings call with investors, as originally reported by Xperia Blog, Yoshida had the following to say: “Well, for next year, our so-called dual-lens — dual-camera platform will be launched by, we believe, from major smartphone players.” He added, “So, we believe the real start, the takeoff of smartphone with dual-lens camera will be in the year of 2017.”

As we’ve been hearing from the rumor mill for a while now, Apple is allegedly working on bringing a dual-lens camera platform — based on Sony’s proprietary ‘dual-lens’ technology — to the forthcoming ‘iPhone 7 Plus.’ Or, at the least, a decked out iteration thereof.

“Well, that’s great, but what on Earth would I need two cameras for?” perhaps you’re thinking. But the answer is actually a bit more sophisticated than it may seem. You see, the objective of a quote unquote, “dual-lens camera system,’ is that the second lens could be used for carrying out Optical Image Stabilization tasks — a common and notorious shortcoming that’s hindered mobile devices and the quality of their photos for years now.

Given the timeframe indicated in Yoshida’s comments, however, we can only presume that the actual, commercialized dual-lens units won’t make their way to the iPhone until perhaps the ‘iPhone 7s’ in 2018.

But anything’s possible, right? I suppose we’ll just have to see what kind of magic Apple has up its sleeve with this camera project once the ‘iPhone 7’ ascends upon us this fall.

Learn More: iPhone 7 Rumor Round-Up: Here’s What We Expect from the Next iPhone

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]