The story of early 2013 was the titanic battle between the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One for the Android smartphone crown, however, the conflict was marred by debilitating supply issues that befell HTC. The issues stemmed from a lack of HTC One camera modules which would eventually go on to severely impact HTC’s bottom line in the weeks after its release. While Samsung won that battle in terms of handsets sold, the tables have turned on Samsung in 2014 as the Samsung Galaxy S5 ISOCELL camera that was shown off earlier this week is apparently suffering from production issues.
This time, it’s not the camera sensor itself which is the problem; it’s Samsung’s new six-element lens which is constructed in an extremely complex and intricate process in which “even the slightest flaw results in a considerable optical distortion”. While the results of a successfully assembled lens are likely phenomenal, the current production yield of these lens is approximately 20-30%, even with Samsung outsourcing the assembly to a third party lens supplier. That’s definitely not a good sign, particularly with the April launch date looming, but hopefully some breakthroughs will happen in the near future to help Samsung meet its supply targets instead of delaying the Galaxy S5’s release in some regions.
What do you think about these new reports of delays for the Samsung Galaxy S5? Has Samsung bitten off more than it can chew with this new ISOCELL camera, and opened the door for HTC? Let us know your opinion in the comments.
Source: ETNews via Phone Arena
