An Asian report today is claiming that LG Innotek has united forces with Apple to develop a smartphone camera module which enables 3D photography. The camera which uses LG Innotek's dual camera will likely to be applied to at least one iPhone model starting in late 2017.

Sources close to the situation said, "Apple is now studying how to apply its 3D camera technology into LG Innotek's smartphone camera. Since LG Innotek also has its own 3D camera and related technologies, such joint efforts will likely to bear fruit sometime within next year."

Apple acquired an Israeli start-up LinX in April 2015 for US$20 million, absorbing the latter's 3D camera technology. LinX, founded in 2011, has the technology of adding more depth to photos by dividing the digital image in three stages.

To realize 3D photographing, it is needed to be complemented by dual camera technology. LG Innotek is now exclusively supplying its dual cameras for Apple's iPhone 7 which was released in Korea last month. LG Innotek has its own 3D camera technology applied for Optimus 3D, released in 2011 by LG Electronics.

Apple has a number of 3D camera technologies on record (one, two) which you could review in our archives. With Huawei and Lenovo introducing dual lens cameras earlier this year that promotes AR and 3D imagery and others like Samsung ready to introduce dual lens cameras into their 2017 premium smartphones, it's clear that Apple is seeking to introduce added features to their dual lens camera on at least their premium iPhone 'Plus' model to give them an edge in the market.

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