Samsung is reportedly in talks to purchase technology this week which could propel smartphone camera performance far ahead of the forthcoming Galaxy S10 range.
A report yesterday from Israeli news outlet Globes, announced the South Korean giant is in “advanced negotiations” with Corephotonics to acquire the mobile camera specialist for around $160 million. Elsewhere, a further report by Calcalist claims the deal has already gone through, according to an anonymous source.
Samsung’s Galaxy S10 range is expected to launch with powerful camera hardware, including dual selfie lenses and a triple rear camera. However, news of the cancellation of a rumored quad-camera version also came at the end of last year.
Purchase of Corphotonics technologies would create enormous potential for Samsung to leapfrog its main competitors and take its smartphone cameras to the next level, possibly without the need for such a quad camera design.
Why acquire Corephotonics?
If the name Corephotonics sounds familiar, you may remember the company filing a 2017 lawsuit against Apple over patent infringements regarding its optical zoom and telephoto lens capabilities.
In the same year Corephotonics’ partnership with the Chinese manufacturer, Oppo, resulted in a 5x stabilized optical zoom smartphone camera prototype being demonstrated at Mobile World Congress.
While this prototype never found its way into a commercial product, the company has since announced that a new 10x lossless zoom camera, is ready for production and due to be announced at the same event this year.
Both of these designs leverage a periscopic lens arrangement, where light travels sideways through the phone, making use of its thickness to avoid the need for a large, protruding zoom lens.
While Oppo is currently expanding operations outside of its native China, including a UK launch today, Samsung’s acquisition could result in far greater worldwide availability of these new and innovative cameras, as well as a significant new competitive edge against the likes of Apple and Google.
