Blair Space: Mobile phones and cameras

This article was published on Blair Space at:
http://tech.blairspace.com/features/161.html

Mobile phones and cameras

I’m not happy. These things should be separate! Why? Because the latest camera phones are quickly approaching my camera. A year or two (not really sure when actually) I purchased a 3.2 mega pixel camera. Now you get 2 mega pixels in a phone.

What is that about? You’re devaluating my camera dammit! What this really does it provide me with an excuse to go out and buy a 6 mega pixel camera but I have bigger problems that need my attention.

So what’s the future going to hold for phones? Are they eventually going to replace the digital camera altogether? I doubt it, at least for the moment. The problem is that yes phones do come with high quality cameras these days but they’re not that good.

You can pick up a 2 mega pixel camera phone for something like £300. Or you can pick up a 6 mega pixel camera for half that. It’s all very well having all this crazy crap on your phone but how much are you paying for voice calls?

Mobile phone charges are a con from the start. Their charges have always been excessive but now you have to throw in the fact that you have to pay a £200 a year free to keep your phone up to date or replace it when it’s stolen. It’s not a fee you would normally notice but it is there.

Think about it – if you buy a phone every year and say use £20 of credit on it per month, what you are actually using is £40 per month. £20 for the credit to make the calls, £20 a month as the phone devaluates over the course of the year until you buy a new one.

Now consider this. You get a cheap phone without all the camera crap. Less chance of it getting stolen as it’s not worth as much and you won’t need to upgrade as you don’t want the latest features anyway. You buy a digital camera for £150 which will last 2 years.

Cost analysis: you are still spending £20 a month on credit plus over the two years your total hardware cost is £200, which works out at £10 per month giving you a total bill of £30 per month for basically the same thing except that your camera is a higher quality. Still think camera phones are a great idea?