Nokia calls it the next breakthrough in photography: A smartphone
with a 41 megapixel camera – three times the resolution of current
mainstream digital cameras. However, it comes with huge drawbacks that
are tough to swallow and create a problem that, without the 808, you
simply don’t have. Here is some food for thought why this phone matters,
and why it is a technology demonstration that will end up as a
commercial flop.
If Kazumi Saburi has read about the announcement of the Nokia 808
today, there is a good chance that he took a moment out of his busy day
and reflected on his invention back in 1997. Saburi carries the
unofficial title of the inventor of the camera phone. Back in 1997, he
was able to convince his managers at Kyocera to lead a project group
that created the Visual Phone VP-210, the world’s first camera phone
that was released in May of 1999. It’s quite an astonishing story of a
humble man who changed our life – I researched and recorded the material
in 2005 for T-Mobile and Tom’s Hardware (you can find the text here).
The VP-210 was, from today’s perspective, just as humble as its
inventor. The image resolution was 220 x 254 pixels – in total 55,880
pixels – and there was enough memory to store 20 pictures in JPEG format
on the phone. No flash memory expansions lots, just in case you are
wondering. However, also keep in mind that, back then, flash memory
cards were sold in 16 or 20 MB capacities and the typical resolution of a
DSC was somewhere between 1 and 2 MP that generated pictures with a
size of less than a megabyte.
If you used camera phones in the early 2000s, you know what kind of
resolution I am talking about – the kind of resolution that isn’t enough
to be even called snapshot-worthy. Those first camera phones, which
flooded the Asian and European market beginning in 2003, made it
difficult to imagine that we would want to look at such a picture on
anything else other than a 2-inch cell phone screen. In fact, CMOS
sensor chips makers maintained until recently that cameras in cell
phones and smartphones are unlikely to ever escape their snapshot status
and rival the picture quality of a decent, dedicated DSC. That may have
changed today: Nokia has a smartphone with a 41 MP camera, roughly
three times the resolution of mainstream DSCs and more than 730 times
the resolution of the camera in the VP-210, resulting in 35 MB pictures.
Engadget had some time with the device and already concluded that the pictures the 808 can deliver are simply stunning.
A milestone for compact photography
Nokia does not want the 808 to be recognized just because of its
ridiculous image sensor. However, it is what is getting the camera
headlines and it is what the camera will be remembered for, at least in
the near future. While megapixels do not translate to better pictures
necessarily, this is the first phone that potentially can take better
pictures than your dedicated, average DSC. Also, remember, you can
purchase up to 64 GB of microSD memory for less than $200 today and
store more than 1800 35 MB pictures taken by the phone in full
resolution. Conceivably, this may be the best camera you have ever
bought. Keep in mind that regular 40+ MP cameras can cost tens of
thousands of dollars today, if you care about resolution alone – which
makes the 808 even more fascinating (even if the image qualities do not
quite compare).
Innovation or not?
Social networks were, not unexpectedly, abuzz with the 41 MP camera
and especially Microsoft employees seem to feel relieved that Nokia can
deliver what Apple and others do not. In the end, Windows Phone has not
won much in the market yet and Nokia still has to rise from the ashes,
even if the Lumia 900 looks promising. For example, one executive told
his network that Nokia does not get the credit it deserves and that true
innovation solves problems that users don’t know they have.
Of course, that would be a bit short too describe the nature of
innovation. Innovation would also have to accomplish a goal of solving a
problem without creating new ones, which the 808 actually might do.
Where the 808 also appears to fail is a cohesive user experience that
Apple provides in such a consistent manner. As much the 808 is a
milestone, it is, unfortunately, an unfinished product that won’t live
very long, and disappear just as fast as it has surfaced. Here is why.
User Experience
A shocker is the fact that the 808 does not run Windows Phone, an
operating system Nokia is betting its future on. And no, it does not run
Android either. It runs Symbian Belle. This is one of those cases in
which you scratch your head and wonder what they were thinking. A
Symbian high-end phone. Really?
This phone is likely to cost at least $500 and more likely $600 when
it hits American shores. We know that customers today prefer iOS and
Android – and users thoroughly enjoy those apps they can get through app
stores. Phones have become social multifunction devices that need to do
more than look pretty and have a large (4-inch) screen display and a
fast (1.3 GHz) processor. Without a supporting popular platform, a new
smartphone is dead on arrival. With Windows Phone 7.5, the 808 would
have been Microsoft’s/Nokia’s first true killer phone that has a feature
no other phone can touch. If the Lumia 900 made you wonder whether you
should consider a Windows Phone, the 808 would have pulled the customers
into phone stores and delivered significant sales. With Symbian Belle,
the 808 is DOA. A 41 MP is a nice-to-have feature, the app store is
generally considered a must-have feature today.
Earlier today, we heard that
Android has reached a milestone of 300 million activated devices, with
850,000 new devices joined the installed base every day.
Bandwidth Strapped
At 35 MB a picture, how long would it take you to burn through your
bandwidth allowance when you are posting pictures to Facebook? Let’s
just forget for a moment that it will also take minutes – not seconds –
to upload such a picture as you would want to take advantage of the
resolution of the camera: You could send 6 pictures per month on
AT&T’s cheapest plan, and 57 pictures on the mainstream 2 GB plan
(of course, you can’t do anything else if you send those pictures). If
you exploit the 41 MP capability, you will end up with a bandwidth
problem with today’s cellular subscription plans (unless you are using
Sprint). The choice is to either scale down the resolution for online
purposes, which is silly given the fact that you may buy this phone
solely because of its resolution, or to get a more generous data plan,
which is also silly given the fact that, in 2012, smartphones have
become mainstream and you should really be able to send all the pictures
you want. Unfortunately, the 808 creates a data volume with a
mainstream application that other phones do not create. Sure, you can
bust through any bandwidth limit if you follow Verizon’s advice to watch
Netflix on a cellular network, but we are talking about simple still
images in this case. In order to make the phone attractive to the user,
Nokia would have to provide unique high-volume data plans with this
phone, which is rather unlikely to happen as carriers happily cash in on
data overages. Imagine using this phone abroad and sending a 35 MB
picture to your family via AT&T data plan that charges $20 per MB
outside the U.S. A single picture will cost you more than what you paid
for the phone.
The Bottom Line: Nice
Welcome back, Nokia. The Lumia 900 established credibility, but it is
out-of box thinking that will help the company gain traction again. The
808 is hardly the phone that will fly off the shelves, but it is an
impressive demonstration of technology. The good news is that we now
know what will be possible in phones in the not-too-distant future: Even
if this is not the iPhone/Android/Windows Phone that has mass market
appeal, we know that someone will get it right one day. With a popular
platform behind it, I will be the first in line to buy a phone with such
an image sensor.
Wolfgang Gruener in Products on February 27
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