Hello future. We have now entered the age in which wireless telephone carriers launch dedicated digital cameras. AT&T announced today that it will be the first major carrier in the US to offer the Samsung Galaxy Camera. The reason this upcoming Android Jelly Bean-powered camera will be offered by phone companies in addition to standard gadget retailers is because it’s one of the first digital cameras that you can purchase a 3G/4G data plan for.
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Imagine a world in which cameras are as connected to the web as cell phones and purchased with contracts from wireless service providers such as AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint. That world may not be too far off. Last week we reported that both Samsung and Panasonic are considering Android-powered cameras that would offer third-party apps and many of the same things offered by mobile phones.

Samsung officials were also quoted as saying that “in a year or two cameras will have the same processing power and memory as smartphones,” and that, “once the cloud computing era truly dawns, a non-connected device will be meaningless. In that case, the camera will need real-time connectivity, and [carriers] are looking for devices like this.”

Samsung looking ahead to carrier-subsidized ‘connected cameras’ [Dpreview]

Image credit: Canon IXUS 100 IS / SD780 IS by iJammin