DISQUS

ARJWright · 8 months ago

The blindness of some to these "next tech" trends that are already happening is amazing if you ask me.

Hugh Scantlebury · 8 months ago

I had a 'social camera' too.

It was a Nokia N97 which had such a good camera I pretty much started leaving my regular camera behind when travelling and was able to take many more en spec shots.

All was fine until Nokia screwed up on a firmware upgrade which rendered Bluetooth communication with Macs and effectively drove me to an iPhone. I love the iPhone but HATE the camera. So much so I ended up buying a NEW high-res bridge digital camera six months ago.

So there's a gap / problem / opportunity, however you refer to it.

This is a chance for Apple to address such shortcomings on an already hugely successful product and yes there is also probably opportunity for canny software developers to make some money out of apps which extend / enhance the core point and shoot functionality of the core phone.

One key difference though is related to data charges. In the UK the iPhone ships with bundled data and free wi-fi hotspot access so users like me are quite 'blase' about using it for internet traffic, uploads, downloads, the lot. This approach is not only popular, easy to understand but positively promotes use by consumers which is in the best interests of the manufacturers and the service providers alike.

On the other hand someone I know with a Nokia found themselves being hit for a £0.30 charge every time they even took a photo (whether they had uploaded to the operators awful bundled on-line photo summary or not - not very social in my view!) due to a poorly designed interface and service plan.

So personally I am looking forward to a new better equipped photo-iPhone. Not only so I can take better pictures but hand my iPhone 3G down the chain so someone else gets the benefit without the relatively enormous capital costs paid by 'ijits' like me.

...and once again my search for the nirvana of the 'perfect device' hopefully once again gets one step closer (bearing in mind that every year, innovation drives the goal further away too <an effect I must come up with a snappy name for this at some stage - suggestions welcome!!>) with an iPhone that has a decent camera, cut n' paste and mostly importantly of all Notes synchronisation (I mean what is the point of them as they stand?!?!?).

JonnyBruha · 8 months ago

I have no problem with Apple coming along and encouraging this idea to the masses of people who, a few years ago, barely knew that a phone could do more than make calls. The camera has been my number one complaint about the iPhone and one of the main reasons I refused to use one as my main device.

The problem I have is the incorrect attention and credit it will generate. Should Apple pull this off well, not only will the company be praised for its success in selling a merged camera-smartphone device to the masses, but those same masses will be fervent in telling everyone that Apple INVENTED this concept, while a large portion of us have been living in this nirvana for a number of years now. I have been using my mobile camera as my ONLY camera since my phone came with one and uploading my pictures since ShareOnline made it possible to do so.

Bernie Goldbach · 8 months ago

I think if Apple really wants to disrupt in this camera space, a stable video application would be folded onto the next generation iPhone. Do it right, and Apple could siginificantly disrupt all sorts of streaming software services currently running on Series 60 devices.

Jonathan · 8 months ago

they need to provide a service not just an application. Qik works well because they can stream it and share it across other systems like youtube, mogulus and ovi.