The Smartphone vs. the Camera Industry
This rather long article describes the past, not necessarily the future.<p>Basically, what the author identifies and yet misses is that most phones these days are no longer phones. A normal camera has similar capabilities except it has better optics and happens to not have a 4g&#x2F;5g chip in it (typically) or be used for taking calls.<p>The status quo of the last 15 years is basically convergence of devices around a form factor that fits in your pocket that is good enough but frankly a bit awkward for many things. They&#x27;ve gotten uncomfortably big and yet are still uncomfortably small for many things (like typing). You only have one phone and the myth companies like Apple are built on is that that one phone comes from them and is the center of your life.<p>However, making phone hardware is getting so cheap now that you can produce fairly decent ones for around 100$. Manufacturers like Apple have been looking to expand in the camera domain to justify higher prices. If you look at the most expensive phones, their number one feature is always the camera.<p>The next logical step from a technical point of view is separating those two again. After all, if phones are cheap, there&#x27;s no good reason why any camera can&#x27;t be a phone as well. The only reason that&#x27;s not happening is that traditional camera manufacturers (like most electronics manufacturers) are lousy at software. Eventually one of them will figure it out.<p>Another thing that I&#x27;ve been expecting to happen is that Apple will figure out that selling just 1 device to people with too much money is bad business. Right now they have a one size fits all phone and that&#x27;s it. You buy it and then you replace it after a few years. The next logical step here is to own multiple devices and start treating them more as accessories to be used in different contexts. The phone you use while biking to work might be different than what you use while you are sitting on the bus or at home. It might not even be a phone. It&#x27;s like owning just one pair of shoes for jogging, weddings, office, and gardening. Once companies figure out how to make switching from one device to the next seamless, there&#x27;s an enormous amount of potential for all sorts of specialized devices to be sold that seamlessly integrate. Including high end cameras.