The Street is currently reporting that for the 2011 iPhone, Apple will be dumping its current partner, OmniVision. This company has provided all of the current iPhone cameras, including the current 3.2 megapixel for the iPhone 3GS and has a supposed order for a 5 megapixel for the upcoming iPhone.

 Hello Sony(SNE), goodbye OmniVision(OVTI). Apple has picked Sony’s 8-megapixel camera chip for the 2011 iPhone, according to supply and manufacturing sources, said Rodman Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar. 

I wont really get into what this entails for Apple and iPhone customers since we’re not an Apple site, but this has some serious positives for Sony. It’s no secret that in the last few years, Sony has lost ground both on consumer sales and component sales to Samsung. Samsung has done a great job of advertising their products while Sony has not and people have floated over to their brand. But that’s not all; in the component world, Samsung is supplying Flash chips which has been a huge and ever-growing segment of products. Portable devices such as the iPhone, the iPad, the Zune, and the PSPgo now use Flash memory. If Sony can land more manufacturing deals, especially with a high volume product like the iPhone, then this can significantly help the much needed cash flow of Sony. Heres to hoping it’s true; as of now, it’s just speculation.