Anecdotally, we have sensed that smartphones have grown rapidly in popularity over the last several years. But as we’ve learned from David Cohen, “the plural of anecdote is not data”. It’s always important to back up our assumptions with facts.
The facts are in. The iPhone 4 is about to become the most popular phone in the 3o million person Flickr Community, as measured by photo upload data.
What’s most amazing about this is that, frankly, the quality of iPhone 4 pictures really isn’t that good. At only 5 megapixels, the photos are often blurry and the flash leaves much to be desired.
But consumers don’t seem to care! This is a great reminder that when presented with two options – in this case, ease of use and convenience (mobile photos) versus quality (point & shoot / DSLR), convenience frequently wins.
All that said, there is no question that mobile photo manufacturers around the world are frantically working to increase the quality of smartphone cameras. Here is a recent HTC ad touting a 16 megapixel Windows Phone 7 camera.
We suspect that someday soon, a vast majority of your school’s alumni class notes will be submitted via smartphones as well!
Ever True!
Brent