Summary of the Key Technological Advances Achieved by Phone Camera/ Smartphones - By Rudra Tiwari

 

The sale of camera phones was much more than the digital camera when it was first launched and many reasons led to it. Many technological advancements took place when the camera phones were first launched and now. In November 2000, J Phone was launched which was the full integration between camera and phone and allowed users to share picture messaging service. Nowadays, we can click a picture on our phone and share it instantly with people through Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, and many changes happened with the first J-phone to the smartphones that we use today. Many companies instantly started launching their camera with their technologies that were better than other previous phone cameras. In 2003, Sony Ericsson launched their first cellular phone with a front camera so that people can take selfies that we take so easily these days. Soon there were phones launched by other companies that promoted video calls. With research and advance in technology, the camera phones improved and it had various features which were same and better than a digital camera. It was convenient and small and could be carried in a pocket. It was getting as good as the digital camera. There were autofocus, led flash, HDR, 4k video, and many more facilities in these camera phones. The phone camera had better megapixels over time. The physical movement of the lens to change the focal length was replaced by the invention of multiple lenses that the smartphones and switch for different types of pictures it clicks. Nowadays, a phone camera can do a lot of things such as medical consultations, retinal eye testing, skin cancer detection, track pandemic, and so much. There are more and more apps that are being developed based on the camera phone and the quality of the image that it can capture at this stage. In 2020, 1.4 trillion phones will be taken by phone camera and the number is only increasing.

 

Analysis of the Social and Business Impacts of Camera Phones

Camera phones revolutionized and changed the world of photography. According to a report by EE Times, there were more sales of phone cameras than digital cameras and it was for a reason that the camera phones eclipsed the market for digital still cameras. In 2003, camera phones account for 13 percent of global mobile phone handset sales (Clarke). In an article by John C. Dvorak, How iPhone Cameras Changed Society, we see him talking about how the market for small sensor pocketable cameras has been killed by smartphones. He writes, "Small cameras were doomed once Apple took photography seriously and managed to get professionals to champion the iPhone" (Dvorak). So we can say this confident that with the camera phones the market of the digital camera completely changed as anyone would prefer to have a phone with a camera in it than a digital camera and a phone separately. These phone cameras got so much better that they completely replaced digital cameras. In the article by Dvorak, we can see how the images produced by an iPhone 7 are better and pretty much what people needed than the digital camera pictures. 

According to the World Economic Forum, smartphone cameras have improved so much that people don't see a need to carry a dedicated camera when their needs to take quality pictures are fulfilled by a modern smartphone. With the help of figure 1, a data provided by Statista we can see the significant drop in sales of cameras as smartphones have been in the market.  It has been a huge loss for the camera and photo equipment industry as the worldwide camera shipments dropped by 84 percent from 2010 to 2018 (Richter). Nowadays, even an average person is increasingly confident to take their pictures with selfies. Now, anyone with a phone, a thumb, and a filter app will be able to take photographs that can be compared to DSLR photographs.

 

An Evaluation of Future of Smartphones/ Camera Phones

Technology is always evolving and the future of smartphones/camera phones can change a lot. We already have some devices with offer 8k video recording and in the future, we can expect it to get only better. The role of smartphones is changing as people are getting more dependent on them with the amount of work they can get done with the help of their smartphones. With the pandemic in 2020, we can already see what a smartphone is capable of. We can get a lot of work done like online learning, online shopping, online doctor consultations, and so on. With can get our bank verification with the help of our smartphones and the in-built camera in it. According to an editorial by Healthcare Informatics Research, smartphones are one of the most popular and attractive devices in mobile health (m-health). It is not possible to imagine that there will be physicians always at an outpatient clinic and so the tools attached to smartphones can monitor the health of the patients when physicians are not around or when one's at home (Lee).

We have seen in sci-fi movies how holographic displays are common in futuristic fantasy films. According to an article, Thin Holographic Video Display For Mobile Phones, on IEEE Spectrum, author Charles Q. Choi finds out from the researchers at Samsung that they have developed a way to create holographic video display. We can say that holographic phones can be a reality one day. We have already created folded phones and we can expect that in the future these phones will be much more convenient to carry and use. With the transformation of user experience, there is a possibility of creating a flexible frame of a smartphone. A lot of people are already worrying about the waste that is generated from all the discarded smartphones by people every day. We can also expect to see a smartphone made of biodegradable materials to reduce waste in the future.

 

 

Works Cited

Choi, Charles Q. “Thin Holographic Video Display For Mobile Phones.” IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News, 10 Nov. 2020, spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/consumer-electronics/portable-devices/holovideo-phones.

Clarke, Peter. Camera Phones Outsold Digital Still Cameras h1, Says Report -. 26 Sept. 2003, www.eetimes.com/camera-phones-outsold-digital-still-cameras-h1-says-report/.

Dvorak, John. How iPhone CAMERAS Changed Society. 21 Sept. 2016, in.pcmag.com/opinion/108130/how-iphone-cameras-changed-society.

Lee, Jae-Ho. “Future of the Smartphone for Patients and Healthcare Providers.” Healthcare Informatics Research, Korean Society of Medical Informatics, 31 Jan. 2016, e-hir.org/journal/view.php?id=10.4258%2Fhir.2016.22.1.1.

Richter, Felix. “How Smartphones Devastated the Camera Industry.” World Economic Forum, 23 Sept. 2019, www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/09/impact-smartphones-had-camera-industry/.