Thursday, March 23, 2006

Mobile Phones have Killed the Camera

Nokia LogoAccording to the 80s song, video might have killed the radio star, but if an interview with a Nokia Exec in the Financial Times is anything to go by, mobile phones are set to kill the portable video star. Ok, so some poetic license, but they have already pushed the camera to the wayside. If not actually killing the camera, the mobile phenomenon has certainly hugely restructured the supply chain.

My film munching Minolta SLR has been sat under the bed for about two years and even my digital camera has not seen the light of day since way before Christmas. Instead, my Nokia N70 (and 6230 before it) have been an ever present camera about my person. With the ease of transfer between devices, I haven't printed to hardcopy in months, but when I last did, I used an Internet based service that delivered to my door for a very reasonable fee.

Now, I'm building quite a sizeable music collection on my phone and any thought of needing an iPod or iRiver is long gone. Video quality doesn't quite compete with camcorders yet, but then, I never felt the need to buy a camcorder.

So it looks like world domination is in order. I wonder when my idea of Nokia doing a joint venture with Victorinox, the makers of Swiss Army Knives, will happen? Just think, all those tools in a phone form factor. You read it here first. More realistically, I think Swatch's design concepts could work well for a mobile phone maker. They should look into that.

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