Future iPhone Tipped To Get A Periscope Telephoto Lens

At this point, we've heard a lot of rumors about 2020's iPhones, along with a few about 2021's batch. Today, however, we're looking even further into the future with an analyst prediction about 2022's iPhones. More specifically, a noted Apple analyst is making some big predictions about the rear-facing cameras on the back of 2022's devices.

As reported by MacRumors, Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo has released a new report where he predicts that 2022's iPhones will use periscope lenses for the telephoto cameras. We've already seen periscope lenses in some smartphones – particularly phones like the P30 Pro from Huawei – and while they shouldn't increase the footprint of the phone's camera array, they should give 2022's iPhones better optical zooming chops.

Kuo's prediction gets into the supply chain side of things too, noting that Apple will likely change suppliers to make these periscope lenses happen. Kuo expects Apple to switch suppliers to Semco out of South Korea in the second half of this year and China's Sunny Optical at some point next year. Currently, Apple gets its lenses from a company called Genius Electronic Optical.

It's worth remembering that 2022 is still a long way off, and that's emphasized even more by the rate at which mobile technology progresses. In recent years, we've seen an increased focus on the cameras our phones have, so take Kuo's prediction (and all rumors for that matter) with a grain of salt.

We've got quite a wait before we see if this prediction comes true, so we'll file this one away and revisit it in a couple of years. In the meantime, we'll be watching to see what Apple does with its camera tech in the iPhones for both 2020 and 2021 to see if we can glean where we're headed in the years beyond.