With more and more smartphones being thrust into the market it is becoming increasingly difficult for technology companies to get one-up over their competitors. In light of this, many manufacturers are turning to development in camera quality to keep up with the crowd.
In the wake of Apple’s new iPhone 4 release last week it would appear that massive investment and advances in technology are paying dividends for some companies where camera quality is concerned. Many believe that this jump in quality may even threaten to shrink the gap further between camera phones and standard point-and-shoot devices.
A recent report has found that more than a fifth (21%) of respondents feel that their mobile phone’s camera is sufficient for their personal photographic needs. This belief is more prevalent in younger generations, with more than a third (35%) of full-time students holding this view compared to the 21% national average. The younger, tech-savvy generation is also apparently more likely than others to try and use their mobile phone cameras in a creative way, with 21% of students saying that they enjoy taking ‘arty’ shots with the camera on their mobile phone.
‘Normal’ cameras still in range
This move towards mobile phone cameras doesn’t mean however that the ‘normal’ camera market has been eclipsed just yet.
This move towards mobile phone cameras doesn’t mean however that the ‘traditional’ camera market has been eclipsed just yet. More than a quarter (28%) of all respondents currently own a SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera, and people are still willing to pay good money for a camera; interestingly men are more likely to do so, with 17% of them willing to pay more than £400 for one, in comparison to nine percent of women. And only seven percent of people in total claim that having a camera on their phone has increased their ‘interest in photography’.
As for what people do when they have actually taken the pictures (however they do so), a quarter (25%) still like to keep them in a physical album, by having them developed or printing them off themselves. More and more people seem to be using social networking sites (such as blogs, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter etc) to share their photographs, with 34% of respondents opting for this choice. This seems to be widespread phenomenon in students, with a soaring 72% of them saying that social networking platforms play a large role in their sharing of photographs.
