From the “we hope it’s true” file: Apple has been snapping up “significant quantities” of LED camera flash components in recent months, presumably to add them to the next generation of the iPhone hardware.

It may not have been complained about quite as much as the lack of copy & paste (which was finally added with last year’s iPhone OS 3.0), but iPhone users who take a lot of pictures have been wishing for a flash for their built-in camera since the device launched in June, 2007. Like MMS, it’s one of those really basic functions that almost every other cell phone with a camera already has!

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple may be ready to change that with this year’s iPhone refresh, hoarding LED camera flash components in the “tens of millions” for delivery this year.

The vendor supplying the components is believed to be Phillips’ Lumileds Lighting. Based in Amsterdam, the company is well-regarded for their LUXEON LED camera flash technology, the first to combine the brightness of regular lighting with the long life and smaller footprint of LED lights (as seen in the comparison photos below). The technology is commonly used with 5 megapixel (and higher) cameras, with more than 200 million units shipped worldwide.


AppleInsider also believes that Apple will leverage the iPhone’s ambient light sensor (in addition to a software switch) to ensure that the LED flash won’t interfere in photos where it isn’t needed. Because the LED flash is also capable of being used as a continuous light source, it would also be capable of providing light for iPhone video recordings as well -- effectively retiring a plethora of “flashlight” apps that litter the App Store since its introduction.

There are already rumors floating around that the next iPhone will see the current 3.2 megapixel camera get bumped up to 5 megapixel, in line with current handsets such as the Palm Pre, Motorola Droid and Google’s Nexus One.