April 14 – According to reports, Apple recently asked its key lens supplier Largan Precision to ramp up orders for variable aperture lenses for the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro series, but the request was turned down.
Largan reportedly politely declined, saying it does not want to blindly expand production capacity at this stage. Instead, the company prefers to focus its resources on developing CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) technology.
The iPhone 18 Pro series is expected to adopt variable aperture lenses, and Apple had hoped to secure enough supply by increasing orders. Largan's refusal is said to have caused some impact on Apple's planning.
By choosing to reserve capacity for CPO, Largan is prioritizing a technology that integrates optical transceivers directly into the SoC package. This can significantly shorten electrical signal transmission paths, reducing latency and power consumption. For Largan, CPO represents a high-margin future market in data centers and AI computing, which it considers more important than additional smartphone lens orders.
The media outlet noted that this kind of rejection is quite rare in Apple's supply chain. Usually, suppliers are willing to invest heavily in expanding capacity to meet Apple's demands. However, Largan's confidence comes from its strong technical barriers - the extremely high yield and precision requirements for high-end lenses make it difficult for others to replace them in the short term.
Sources also pointed out that Apple had already prepared for this situation. Sunny Optical has become the main supplier of variable aperture lenses for the iPhone 18 Pro, with Largan now playing a secondary role. This move shows Apple is actively diversifying its supply chain to reduce reliance on any single vendor.
Apple's request for more orders also indirectly reflects its confidence in strong sales for the iPhone 18 series. The variable aperture feature is positioned as a key differentiator for the Pro models and will require sufficient production capacity.
At the same time, Apple is reportedly testing under-display Face ID technology, aiming to hide the facial recognition module beneath the screen to shrink the size of the Dynamic Island. This design is still in the A/B testing stage, and the final solution has not yet been decided.
