Cameras come centre stage in next generation of smartphones

The death of the point and shoot digital camera may be nigh. At least, it will be if the mobile phone makers get their way.

Since the first camera-enabled mobile phone hit the market in the last decade, the standalone digital camera has been used less and less. It makes sense: the mobile phone is already in pockets; it can be used for capturing memories on the fly, and with the advent of smartphones, you can tweak it, apply a couple of filters and share it with the world in a matter of minutes.

But camera phones have always lagged their point and shoot counterparts in terms of quality. While they could rack up the megapixel count, the lack of decent optics and good quality zoom lenses hampered the camera phone’s assault on camera territory a little.

That could be about to change. The next generation of smartphones mean business.

Samsung got things off to a start in June by announcing the Galaxy S4 Zoom, which essentially slaps a zoom lens on a regular camera phone, turning it into an altogether more powerful – and bulkier – beast.

The company has been developing its line of cameras for some time, with Wifi and has decided that now is the time to combine it with its range of Galaxy smartphones. The result is an Android powered device that looks more camera than phone at first glance.

The 16 megapxiel camera is the focus of the Zoom, with a 10x optical zoom lens making it stand out from the crowd. It comes with optical image stabilisation too, so your shots are less shaky.

The improved camera phone is something that Nokia has been working its way towards for some time. From the Symbian-powered 808 PureView handset to the addition of a sixth lens in its new Lumia phones, the Finnish firm is seeking out new ways to distinguish itself from the increasingly crowded smartphone sector.

It's a significant turnaround from Nokia's heyday. The company was once king of the smartphone, but has seen its fortunes wane significantly in recent years as it suffered under the barrage of competition from rivals such as Apple and Google.

Wide appeal
But the Finnish firm is trying to pull itself back from the edge, rolling out handsets that are designed to appeal to a wider audience, from the budget friendly Lumia 520 to the high end Lumia 925. And not to forget the most recent addition, the Lumia 1020, which packs a 41 megapixel camera into the phone body.

The device was launched last week, although the usual leaks meant that very little about the device was left to reveal by the time chief executive Stephen Elop finally took the wrapping off the device.

Promising to reinvent zoom and revolutionise mobile photography, the Lumia 1020 is aiming high.

“It’s a revolution in mobile photography,” said Tuula Rytilä, chief marketing officer with Nokia.

She was confident that the phone-buying public would be as impressed with the Lumia 1020 as Nokia is, citing the camera as a major driver for phone purchases.

The device takes two shots with every press – a lower resolution image at 5 megapixels to share with friends, family and random internet strangers immediately. The second shot, which is up to 38 megapixels in size, serves as an archive that you can back to again and again to edit, zoom, re-edit and crop as you see fit. What you end up with is a highly detailed shot that you can reuse over and over, and bucks the recent trend of apps such as Instagram that allow you to make your photos look more grainy and “retro” than the technology would imply.

There is also the Pro camera app, which not only gives you control over settings such as the white balance and shutter speed, but also teaches you a bit about what the settings do. The impact of any change is instant and in the palm of your hand.

The flash has been changed to a Xenon flash, and the improvements that came with the Lumia 925’s video technology have also been included, so the 1020 will offer a well-rounded, multimedia experience to Windows Phone 8 fans.

And to rival Samsung’s camera “look”, Nokia is also bringing a camera grip to the party, so you can use your new Lumia in the same way that you would a camera. Crucially, it also provides some extra battery power.

Microsoft may still squeeze some extra cash out of you: storage on the phone is limited to 32GB, which has to be shared among videos, photos, documents and apps. Take a lot of photos or shoot a lot of high-res videos and you will soon find you lack space. You get 7GB of free storage space with SkyDrive, but anything more than that and you'll need to put your hand in your pocket to buy extra storage.

AT&T is offering 50GB of cloud storage to customers, but there's no indication that any such offer will be extended to Irish consumers.

New benchmark
Ovum's principal device analyst Tony Cripps said the device set a new benchmark for high-end smartphone engineering, and served as a timely reminder of Nokia's R&D capabilities.

“At a time when macro-level innovation has seemed to be lacking in smartphones – due to the homogeneity of smartphone operating systems and the drive to appeal to the mass market – Nokia’s Lumia 1020 demonstrates that there is still considerable scope to drive forward the user experience in core smartphone capabilities,” he said.

That view was echoed by Malik Saadi, principal analyst with Informa Telecoms, who said the Lumia 1020 was not just another evolutionary upgrade. “It is impressive to see all this sophisticated hardware packed into such a beautiful and compact industrial design,” he said.

“However, it remains to be seen how the device will behave in terms of power consumption and sensor heating effect, processing such high-quality images requires advanced processing hardware.”

It’s not going to be an easy ride for the firm, however. Ovum’s Cripps said Nokia was still facing several obstacles.

"The company must still overcome incumbent rivals, slow adoption of Windows Phone and a modest marketing budget if it is to finally help the company turn a financial corner after its recent time in the doldrums."

Pricing
Crucial to the phone's success will be its eventual pricing, once it goes on general sale.

“Pricing has yet to be revealed but engineering of the kind on offer in the Lumia 1020 does not come cheap,” Cripps said.

“Aggressive operator subsidies would no doubt help in that regard, but might detract from the device’s premium engineering and user experience.”

Informa’s Saadi said of equal importance would be the marketing strategy for Nokia.

“From a marketing perspective, cameraphones with quality close to SLR will attract a big audience, certainly those of us who want a two-in-one device of a good smartphone with a good camera,” he said.

“The Lumia 1020 enables the capture of SLR-quality images in a phone form factor, which is a very good offer as it enables a significant cost saving while dramatically improving the overall camera experience.”

The phone is set to go on sale in the US in a matter of days, but when it will come to Ireland is not yet known. Key European markets and China are next on the list, with the phone expected to launch there before the end of the quarter.