*It's incredible to think that "cameras" might go away like manual typewriters when there are more "photographs" being "published" than ever, but the thing is, the social distribution of graphics files on the net isn't photography and it isn't publishing. Furthermore, there's good reason to think that digital "photos" will be ever more dependent on optical software and ever less dependent on optical machinery. In other words, you could capture raw data with the lousiest pinhole lens imaginable and just have the Cloud fix it up.
*Where are Konica and Minolta? Out of business.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/17/iphone-4-camera/
"...the iPhone 4 alone is still going to be the most popular camera on Flickr in under a year. It’s pretty remarkable, really.
"It also speaks to just how badly Flickr has dropped the ball with regard to mobile. We’ve previously delved into this topic when recounting a former Yahoo employee talking about how Flickr should have built a service like Instagram, but simply couldn’t due to bureaucracy. Flickr has long had the data to show that smartphone cameras were starting to dominate the market, but they really didn’t do anything about it.
"The chart below is even more interesting. The “popular” point & shoot camera are all tanking, quickly. You’d think there would be one that is still doing well, but when compared to the high end (SLR) market and the smartphone market, they’re in a total nosedive. This will only get worse. As we’ve also previously written, the point & shoots have also totally dropped the ball with regard to the social photo revolution — they’ve committed seppuku...."
