New rumors talk of iPhones with periscope telephoto lens, AirPods with light sensors

In a note to clients — as noted by MacRumors — analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that Semco, the best Korean lens supplier, and Sunny Optical, the best Chinese lens supplier, will enter the Apple lens supply chain in the second half of 2020 and 2021, respectively.

He adds it’s likely Semco will be providing a large percentage of new”periscope telephoto lenses to Apple for the 2022 ‌iPhone‌. 

If a smartphone has a such a lens, it can provide a hybrid zoom range of 10X or even higher depending on the tunnel length and lens element arrangement. Periscope lenses allow for greater optical zoom by bouncing light inside the phone off a mirror before passing it through another smaller lens which can be moved closer and further away from the sensor, amplifying the light even more.

Moving on, according to DigiTimes, Apple is scheduled to roll out its third-generation AirPods series earbuds in the first half of 2021 followed by the launch of a new-generation AirPods Pro in the second half of next year. New versions of the earbuds could sport light sensors for health monitoring features.