Opinion The vicious tech cycle
The new Nokia N8 is gradually becoming a very popular phone.
The new Nokia N8 is gradually becoming a very popular phone. In fact,the Finnish giant is so confident of its latest creation that it has started selling the product as a good camera everyone knows the phone part must be good. And with a 12MP camera,the reason is pretty valid. And the N8 is not alone. There are many other phones with very good photo-taking capabilities,not many which have been featured in photography magazines.
But I have always been intrigued why you need a camera in a phone,let alone one with a sensor and megapixel number that could shame a lot of DSLRs. Look at it clinically. Who would actually need to carry a good camera with them? If you strike out professional photographers,who will anyway have their kit with them,you are left with just automobile insurance assessors and maybe aspiring citizen journalists,the paparazzi kind mostly.
If you are just thinking of clicking pictures with your friends waiting for the next Metro service,or trying out your first cocktail,then a camera in your phone can be very handy. But a 12 MP one and that too at a considerable premium,is quite beyond me.
But then gadgets these days are not bought only because of their utility. There is an aspirational level to technology these days. You aspire to buy a laptop,you aspire to write a book,or edit your videos into a movie once you have got the laptop. The same goes for phones too,I guess. I will click better pictures if I had that phone,I will be better connected with my friends if I had that app on the phone and so on.
But how many of us actually use the features on a smart phone once you get hold of it. I use five applications regularly on my phone,there are about a dozen I have tried once in a while,a handful I am not bothered about and a few I have no clue about. But Im not willing to let go off any of the apps on my phone,except for maybe a few games.
And,of course,I would not mind a 12 MP camera either.
There is no end to this vicious cycle.
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