Ericsson may have a very ambitious goal for 2012, but it seems that they're well on their way to achieving that dream. Sony, the other half of the dynamic duo known as Sony Ericsson, has just announced the world’s first 12-megapixel image sensor for mobile phones.

It's the IMX060PQ. It's a 1/2.5 CMOS images sensor from the Exmor series and currently has the highest megapixel count in the market. It’s equipped with autofocus and is also relatively cheap costing roughly $26. It’ll be available beginning March 2009. That basically means that 12-megapixel Sony Ericsson phones should begin sprouting towards the end of the 1st half of next year. This is the first step towards their dream of coming out with 20-megapixel camera phones in 2012.

While Samsung may have already announced of their plans for similar imaging sensors, a definite date is yet to be known. In any event, you can probably expect a Samsung - Sony Ericsson camera phone showdown in 2009. How about you LG, any major plans for 2009?

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