Photography? Yeah, there is an app for that. Actually, there are scores of photography apps for the iPhone alone and probably that number again available for Android. The iPhone is killing cameras, both still and video.
Increasingly, your smartphone is your camera, GPS, pager, MP3 player, email client, phone… computer. And, what can’t a computer do?
There were the ignominious lumps known as feature phones and then Apple’s iPhone made the phone smart. Android added competition and here we are.
Unfortunately, for digital compact camera makers, like bankrupt Kodak, here is the beginning or perhaps even the middle of the end. AFP (via Taipei Times) reports that digital camera shipments plummeted 42 percent in September versus the same month last year.
“We may be seeing the beginning of the collapse of the compact camera market,” said Nobuo Kurahashi, analyst, Mizuho Investors Securities.
Shipments of higher-end cameras with detachable lenses, like Canon’s EOS series, only declined 7.4 percent. However, the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S III and other well equipped smartphones do everything a compact digital camera can do and much, much more. In fact, in many settings, the iPhone 5 and kindred devices rival DSLRs.
So, for some years to come, millions of compact and DSLR cameras continue to sell every month. Nevertheless, the end is nigh.
The iPhone is killing cameras…
What’s your take?