Smartphones Stick it to Digital Cameras

When you’re out and about using your smartphone and you see something interesting, do you put

your phone away, reach into your pocket and grab your digital camera? Of course not, because

then you not only have to go home, plug in the device or remove the memory card and use a card

reader to access your files via computer, but then you’d have to transfer the images to your hard

drive (if you wanna backup of your files and to make room on your card), and then upload them

manually to whatever social networking sites you wish to share them on. Whew. Sounds like a

lot. But that’s how we used to do things. Not anymore. According to a new report from

Bloomberg today, smartphones are kicking digital cameras in the teeth and it doesn’t look like

that’s gonna stop.

In the above mentioned example, you simply go to the camera on your smartphone, take a

picture, open the options for that image (alter it if you want using photo editing software or

instagr.am for you iPhone users), and then upload it to Facebook right there with a caption. It’s

simple. Here’s the funny part… the image is fine. It’s not just a convenience factor

anymore. Smartphone cameras are rocking incredible resolutions and simple functions that used

to be solely the territory of digital cameras. For example, I was working an event the other

evening and a couple of the girls were having a hard time getting the digital camera flash to get

the right lighting. I suggested using my Blackberry, and the pictures came out amazing. I take

loads of photos with my blackberry, and it actually has a plethora of settings for shooting

different objects wether it be auto, landscape, or text, etc. Flash, no flash, auto-flash, and 4X

zoom are all standard, and the camera is 5 megapixels. That aint half bad. Unless I’m a

professional looking for the max resolution possible and editing photos using Photoshop, the

smartphone provides more than enough to get by… and is super convenient.

“The cell-phone camera is becoming more accepted as the primary camera,” said Pamela

Tufegdzic, an analyst at research firm IHS Inc. “Smartphones are cannibalizing the point-and-

shoot, digital-still camera market.” In this very same article, it is said that digital camera

shipments are expected to fall by 4.3% again this year to 115.2M units. Bloomberg’s report goes

on to say, “The iPhone 4S, Apple’s latest smartphone, takes photos with 60 percent higher

resolution than the company’s previous model. HTC, which makes smartphones based on

Google Inc.’s Android operating system, said its new One handsets capture images in poor-

lighting conditions. And Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), the world’s biggest mobile-phone maker by

volume, last month introduced a handset with a camera sensor that the company says delivers

photos with five times the resolution of the iPhone 4S.”

I don’t know that this is the death of the digital camera, but it does seem to be wounded,

badly. The high-end will always be the high end, but for the average consumer, the appeal of a

separate device to handle photo responsibilities when a smartphone is just as efficient and more

convenient could spell doom. Remember the mobile gaming arena? Remember how folks are

now just playing tiny, addicting games on their mobile devices without the need for an additional

form factor? Same story here. Sure, digital cameras, like handheld gaming platforms, are going

to be better and higher quality than a smartphone. But is that difference enough to justify

running around with two devices? If the report is any indication… No.

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