Here’s a new iPhone commercial Apple just released today on its website and on YouTube. It’s a 1-minute-long spot that focuses on how the iPhone has shaken up the world of casual photography by becoming the world’s most popular camera.
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Here’s a startling side-by-side comparison of news photos that has begun floating around on the social web. Both photographs show a large crowd gathered to witness the unveiling of a new pope. The top one was what AP photographer Luca Bruno saw in 2005 when Pope Benedict XVI was introduced, while the bottom one is what AP photographer Michael Sohn witnessed yesterday at the election of Pope Francis.
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In February 2012, Adobe launched a photo editing app for Android and iOS tablets called Photoshop Touch. The software price priced at $10, and offers many of Photoshop’s core features in a touch-based interface.
Now, one year later, Adobe is expanding the reach of PS Touch even more: the company announced today that the app is now available for Android and iOS smartphones (and the iPod touch).
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Hiroshi Hiyama over at Phys.Org reports that smartphones are crushing the point-and-shoot industry, putting compact cameras in the same group as video game consoles and portable music players — devices that are having a hard time competing against all-in-one phones. The numbers are crazy:
Just as digital cameras all but destroyed the market for photographic film, the rapid shift to picture-taking smartphones has torn into a camera sector dominated by Japanese firms including Canon, Olympus, Sony and Nikon. “We may be seeing the beginning of the collapse of the compact camera market,” said [analyst] Nobuo Kurahashi. Figures from Japan’s Camera and Imaging Products Association echo the analyst’s grim prediction. Global shipments of digital cameras among Japanese firms tumbled about 42 percent in September from a year ago to 7.58 million units, with compact offerings falling 48 percent, according to the Association. Higher-end cameras with detachable lenses fell a more modest 7.4 percent in that time, it said.
As the compact camera market shrinks, the war over mirrorless camera dominance is growing. All the major camera makers now have a horse in that race, which will only be heating up as consumers discover that they no longer have a need for small-sensor cameras.
Smartphones crushing point-and-shoot camera market [Phys.Org]
Image credit: Photo illustration based on still from Inception by Warner Bros. Pictures
The photograph seen here was shot using a tablet computer — one that doesn’t officially exist yet. Google engineering SVP Vic Gundotra posted the image to Google+ at 4:57 this morning with the caption, “Early morning walk on the beach.” A quick peek at the EXIF data reveals that it was captured with the “Google Nexus 10,” a tablet that’ll reportedly be unveiled at a press event next Monday.
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Businessweek writes that Canon has lowered its sales estimates across all its camera lines, saying that smartphones are drinking its milkshake — and it’s not just Canon:
Global camera sales are expected to fall 4.3 percent this year to 115.2 million units, according to market researcher IHS. Industrywide camera shipments fell 25 percent in August from a year earlier, according to the Camera & Imaging Products Association in Tokyo.
By comparison, global sales of smartphones [...] rose 32 percent to 146.1 million units in the second quarter, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics.
“We lowered our camera sales projection because of slower economic growth and an increasing use of smartphones that’s eroding demand,” [Canon] Chief Financial Officer Toshizo Tanaka told reporters in Tokyo today.
This year, compact cameras are projected to have the worst demand since 2009. Who would have thought that digital cameras would be struggling as digital photography booms?
Canon Reduces Forecasts as Smartphones Start Replacing Cameras [Businessweek]
Update: Canon has announced its latest quarterly results. Revenue is down 13% and profit is down 42%.
Image credit: Fotógrafo / Photographer by ajgelado
Over the last year or so, as camera phones and “phoneography” have taken off, many have feared and/or expected the death of the digital camera. In many ways this fear has come to fruition — point-and-shoot cameras are becoming a thing of the past — but for another segment of the market, the advent of the camera phone has benefitted companies and consumers alike. Read more…
Smartphones are taking huge bites out of the compact camera market. A recent study by market research company NPD found that the percent of photographs taken with a smartphone has increased from 17% to 27% over the past year, while the share of photos taken with a dedicated camera has dropped from 52% to 44%. Senior imaging analyst Liz Cutting says,
There is no doubt that the smartphone is becoming ‘good enough’ much of the time; but thanks to mobile phones, more pictures are being taken than ever before. Consumers who use their mobile phones to take pictures and video were more likely to do so instead of their camera when capturing spontaneous moments, but for important events, single purpose cameras or camcorders are still largely the device of choice.
The point-and-shoot camera market is taking the brunt of the damage: during the first 11 months of 2011, the market lost 17% in units sold and 18% in revenue.
Image credit: Image by The NPD Group/Imaging Confluence Study 2011
Social Lights is a project by photographer Seymour Templar that’s like a nighttime version of Joe Holmes’ Texting series that we featured earlier this year. Templar documented social life in NYC by snapping portraits of people interacting with others through their cell phones. Each individual unwittingly helps out by lighting their own faces with their phone displays.
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