It’s not too often that you hear someone ask you to wait a minute while they pull out their camera to take a snapshot. Chances are they’re just going to pull out their phone and start snapping away. The quality of smartphone pictures is pretty good and getting better all the time, which doesn’t bode well for point and shoot camera makers. From the Guardian: “Sales of point and shoot cameras fell 30% by value in 2011 compared with the year before. Camera manufacturers have been on red alert since last summer, when the iPhone 4 became the most popular device from which snaps were uploaded to the picture sharing website Flickr.” And if you’re still a stickler for quality, you can now buy tiny lenses that attach to your phone. Tiny lenses!
So what do you do if you’re a camera maker? How about make your cameras more like phones. Sony, Kodak, and Samsung are all unveiling Wi-Fi connected phones at this year’s CES. Who knows, pretty soon maybe we’ll be able to send texts and make calls with our cameras.