The mobile phone has been one of the biggest technology revelations ever. Fact. You can go all philosophical about the fact it has enable cheap and easy communication and brought people closer together. However the fact of the matter is it’s allowed me to stop caring around so much stuff.
Gone are the days I need to carry around a music player, camera, calculator, diary, notebook; and much more. Granted I never carried around those things but its nice to not have to and you see where I’m going.
So you can see the confusion when HTC announce a camera, a bold move by a company typically just known for producing mobile phones. The sticking point is this camera is designed to be used with your smartphone. That smartphone that’s already got a camera? Sure lets argue that the camera is more robust and offers increased usability, but I have issues with this little periscope.
Make Your Phones Better?
It features a 16 mega pixel sensor with a huge wide angled lens that trumps the camera used on its flagship M8. There is certainly an argument to be made on using it with such a poor camera on the accompanying phone. If that’s the stumbling block for your phone why not put the extra $200 toward a phone with a better camera?
HTC: If you feel the need to produce a camera to accompany the poor shooter on your flagship, why not simply put a better camera in your phones? Producing a more robust and water proof camera so I can get the ‘shots I really need’ just highlights the lack of this in your phones.
Add On Madness
This issue is not unique for the HTC RE, why do companies feel the need to start producing add ons for mobile phones? Android produced a watch that gives me the same information I have on my mobile, Sony gives me a lens to strap onto the back of my phone to make my camera better. Even Evernote produce a notebook, the exact thing its software is designed to replace!
A modular phone would be very much a revolution in the phone market, however this is not the technology we are looking for! Are profits not enough brands need get us spending more, or just an attempt to weigh me down with more items you previously unburdened me from? Produce the best all round handset and all of these add-ons are redundant.
Just The Start
The scariest thing about this is that these are just the start of add ons. Controlling locks, lights, and even blood pressure monitoring from your smartphone is one thing but these contraptions are out of control. CES 2014 was awash with accessory fever, providing everything from the latest battery pack to a microscope smartphone add on.
It’s only a matter of time before we have a face mounted screen, ‘smart’ watch on our wrist, and are carrying an extra camera. All to avoid taking the tablet sized phone out of our reinforced pockets. Do we need this technology or is it simply a case of we are told this is what we need?
[button link=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/moleskineart/3111584464/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Feature Image: Patrick Ng[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
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