If I remember rightly you said a couple of years ago 'within a year' that we would have a large-sensor phone the size of a brick. And about the same time we had another prediction of an apparently a new player breaking all the norms.
I know that (as you say) you are not responsible for delivering these products but it does call into question any claims you make about a 'new generation image capture system' coming 'sooner than you think'.
All this inside knowledge and so little actually delivered - give the number of prognostications I would expect at least one of them to be right.
Actually, it seems it is Xiaomi and F150 Bison who have currently delivered the brick-like 20, 50 and 108 megapixel large sensor super-smartphones rather than Canon!
More than an iterative update.
www.techradar.com
The F150 Bison 2021 can score with many certifications and a thick battery in the test, but a certain amount of compromise is also revealed. Especially in terms of ergonomics and camera quality.
www.notebookcheck.net
I do understand that Canon is working on greater than 1/2 inch sensor combination point-and-shoot brick-like camera with a very very large screen which has smartphone functionality! Canon is mostly a large optics corporation that has LITTLE EXPERTISE in smartphone technology. They would have to partner with someone else to produce the smartphone parts to integrate into the brick like cameras. They won't be partnering with Sony but I do see possibly Asus as a possible smartphone partner.
All I can do is report on in-the-wild prototypes (as per a series of two photos I posted years ago on this site!) where I have been informed that ONE of the photos was the correct functional Canon device and the other was a rendering from a fan-site. My prognostications are mostly from numerous East-Asian engineering sources and a few European electronics engineering ones. Products get started and trashed all the time by the largest companies. All I can do is report on what was seen or heard from 2nd, 3rd and even 4th parties.
There was one report here on this site where I made a statement that Apple was seriously taking a look at BUYING an entire patent portfolio via a major takeover deal of a listed set of hardware companies and that CANON was on the short-list as a take-over target. Apple CEO Tim Cook has cordial relationships with various CEO's AND politicians in Japan which would actually ALLOW Apple to be one of the ONLY foreign companies in the world to be allowed to purchase a major Japanese company such as Canon!
That takeover list was later confirmed to me by certain "insiders" and I should note that Apple is STILL on the hunt for a major patent portfolio and that Texas Instruments is STILL on the list for its DSP and CPU manufacturing IP. Citizen is also on it for it for their watch-centric micro-machine and micro-systems manufacturing prowess, as is eLux (a MicroLED manufacturing company originally part of Sharp Electronics in Yakima, Washington for their display tech).
Right now their LEADING at-of-the-top-of-the-take-over-target-list is "ON Semiconductor" which basically manufactures EVERYTHING that Apple could want in mobile systems including image sensors, automotive electronics, and CPU semiconductor manufacturing systems.
en.wikipedia.org
At the current 3x Earnings Multiple in the current financial environment, ON Semiconductor is worth a valuation of $17.6 Billion USD which is an EASY and QUICK BUY for Apple -- I am VERY VERY VERY SURPRISED that Tim Cook hasn't pulled the trigger yet to acquire ON Semiconductor. It's a total STEAL OF A PRICE for all of the patent / IP portfolio and manufacturing systems it has!
I also note that Apple HAS purchased manufacturing facilities and systems in Texas and possibly Nevada for what I understand is their production line of ultra large sensor 3D scanning cameras and pro-level DCI 8K displays/monitors that JUST HAPPEN to be full-blown Hollywood-quality DCI 8K video and still photo production systems in their own right.
This I know from contacts within various land-use / property registry sections of major cities/counties in BOTH Texas and Nevada. You look for recent purchases by numbered and blandly named companies and do a cross-reference with who is acting as the agent or law firm to find out which is Apple or another technology company! There is a WHOLE INDUSTRY of people who do nothing but look at land-registry and building permit records to find out who is building what, where and when!
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My prognostications SHOULD and MUST be taken with many grains of salt as I am reporting from MANY parties who all have their own interests at heart. There is ONLY ONE SYSTEM I can truly prognosticate on and that is only because it's sitting on my desk at the moment because I designed and coded the AUDIO/VIDEO/METADATA CODEC for it!
V
