In their quarterly results call, OmniVision almost confirmed that the next generation iPhone would have an 8-megapixel back camera. While talking about their plans for coming months, OmniVision executives revealed that they are transitioning much of their smartphone image sensor production capacity to 8-megapixel, as they were seeing strong orders from key customers in the smartphone market. And as far as key customers go Apple is OmniVision’s biggest smartphone customer, clearly indicating that Apple is moving to 8-megapixel sensor for their next generation iPhone.

OmniVision also revealed their plans for next generation 8-megapixel sensor OV8830, which would be a prefect fit for iPhone 5 because of its thinner profile. The company said it would ship the new sensor to “premier brand name” smartphone creators in second half of this year. According to reports, OmniVision has already started mass production of the new OV8830 sensor and plans to start large-scale shipment of the sensor by end of June.

All the signs are now pointing to an iPhone 5 this summer, like we reported last month. We are very sure that Apple will announce and ship the next gen iPhone before the much rumored September launch.
[Via Electronista]