Cameras; the next battleground?
I have been thinking about this for the last couple of weeks and funnily enough Neowin posted an article seemingly supporting part of my idea on the issue.
When I look at the devices I use on a weekly, mostly daily basis, all but one devices runs on a Microsoft operating system and even if they weren’t they could be. The one device that is not (and nor could it from my understanding) is my Fujifilm camera and I started thinking about this.
Obviously, Microsoft, Apple and Linux all support devices with cameras as shown in the mobile market but why do none of them have their operating systems on dedicated camera devices? As much as I love camera it doesn’t have the nicest or easiest menu system on it and this is probably due to lack of competition within the OS side of the camera market as most people are more concerned with the hardware they are buying and will put up with the operating system. I think there could be big benefits for the camera makers if they had better, more powerful operating systems for their cameras as it could also entice more of the casual photographers to buy cameras rather than just those who were keen on taking pictures.
A camera could immediately become more attractive if it was able to run low powered applications, perhaps ones that the users could edit photos and videos with, rather than find out if the picture they had taken was level by using a spirit level application. But then taking it to the extreme a camera would be very sellable if it was a media player and maybe also a phone, not a phone also having a camera. My issue with high power cameras on phone is that they are let down by the fact there is no optical zoom and often only a limited digital zoom and no real control of the lens etc etc.
So where am I going with this I hear you ask, well I don’t think it would be ridiculous to see cameras over the next few years using a widely available platform, whether that platform exists now or not is beside the point, and I also can see it being a Linux distribution which starts it off them quickly followed by Microsoft and Apple.
I would expect Microsoft to release either a version of Windows Mobile designed for cameras or making yet another platform for the devices. Although seeing as Microsoft have very few partners in the camera market it could be they make their own camera running on their own OS, much like the Zune is doing in the MP3 market. I can see Apple adding to the iPods and iPhone to include a much more powerful camera, one of the most criticised features of the phone at the moment. I think Linux as often happens would make it there first but would quickly be squashed to only a very small market share.
I know I would prefer to have less devices that I always carry around with me and if a really good camera/phone/MP3 Player could be created I know I would love to use it. It is just a shame that there is currently just no good combination of all three devices, but maybe in the next few years we will see a new battleground for the tech giants to fight over.
Comments
No comments yet, be the first to add one!