A new report from Digitimes claims Apple has received a series of verification units for new ambient light sensors to (allegedly) implement in the next-generation iPhone, set to be announced in September according to speculation surfaced in the past weeks. The new supplier, Taiwanese-based company Capella, currently ships ambient light sensors to HTC, and may receive orders from Apple before the end of the year “at the earliest”, the publication says.

Capella, which ships over one million ambient-light sensors to HTC a month currently, has reportedly delivered its products to Apple for verification as the ambient-light sensors currently used by iPhone 4 have been criticized for some problems, said the sources, noting that Capella may received Apple’s orders before the end of the year at the earliest.

Capella shares, which are listed on Taiwan’s OTC market, suffered a major setback recently as sentiment for the stock was blunted by its decreased first-quarter gross margin.

The ambient light sensor is used in mobile devices, in conjunction with software, to determine the automatic screen brightness and optimal settings depending on external light conditions. The iPhone, for instance, has a panel in the system Settings application that allows users to turn auto-brightness on and off, as well as a slider to manually adjust brightness. The iPhone 4 and other Android devices were highly criticized last year for their hardware and software implementation of auto-brightness which, in most cases, doesn’t take in account light conditions at the sides of a device (the ambient light sensor is placed on iPhone’s front panel) and, due to a series of bugs, automatically locks brightness settings to the highest level, thus consuming large amounts of battery life.

The iPhone 5 is rumored to skip a WWDC announcement for a Fall 2011 release, but rumors surfaced online so far haven’t mentioned a new or improved usage of ambient light sensors in the new device.