iShoot, Apple's Next Consumer Play?

[Kent Pribbernow]

Lately I've been pondering a notion deep within the pile of grey goop (some say it's made of a certain unmentionable material) which resides in my skull, and a thought has given birth. Could Apple's next venture into consumer electronics be a digital camera? iShoot maybe? Think about what Apple does with its iLife application suite. It empowers consumers to create. To make music...to make movies...to make photo albums...to take whatever moment of their lives they want to capture or enjoy, and turn it into digital content. Add to that also that Apple takes hardware and integrates it with great software. Since the company has already plunged head first into the digital audio domain, it makes sense that we'll see them move into other new venues. And I believe that will be digital photography.

Now before any of you start throwing tomatoes and make note of the fact that there are already tons of excellent digital camera makers out there. I would also retort that there were already a wide array of companies building MP3 players before Apple introduced iPod. Steve Jobs loves nothing more than to shatter the status quo and turn a market upside down, just as the iPod did.

It makes perfect sense to me that Apple will create an amazing digital camera and leverage iPhoto in new ways, ways that we haven't thought of. Perhaps it could be another device with a built-in camera? With the popularity of photo blogging, we could even see some feature integration between this new device, iPhoto, and the web.

Could Apple do for digital photography what it has for digital audio?

[Mojo Jojo]

Any interesting thought... but I am not so sure it is 'earth-shaken' enough. There are some very, very, nice cameras out there and they are largely unadopted by the mass public. Thus leaving what is accepted as lower quality 2-5 mega pixel range which is heavily populated.

I think however your on the right track (or at least I am so self centered to believe my own thoughts might be closer :D ) and say that Apple is going to skip still photo and move into digital video recorders.

Video has that 'feel' of complexity that Apple can market too. A lot of people are shy about it because of what it takes to move the video inbetween equipment and then to edit it and burn a DVD. But if Apple made a Digital Video Recorder (mini hard drive based like the iPod) and had the hooks in place for a Final Cut Lite and iDVD they could create another 'All in One' solution for video. Just connect the firewire cable and your walked through it in a step process. Record, Edit, Burn.

Then again...

Maybe all that is just wishful thinking. I do like the thought of a new digital camera though.

[phillypocket]

Didn't they do that already with their old, I think it was called, QuickTake (or something like that)

[Zack Mahdavi]

Didn't they do that already with their old, I think it was called, QuickTake (or something like that)

Yeah, I think that was back in 1994. Here's a link to it: http://www.epi-centre.com/reports/9403cdi.html

Of course, that was in the pre-Jobs era. :) I used to think that a digital camera with a mini-hard drive would be a great thing for going on vacation, but now that I think about it, people rarely take that many pictures on their digital cameras at once. Plus, Apple seems to have addressed the digicam space storage problem by introducing that little flash drive for their iPod.

So I don't think we'll see a digicam from Apple anytime soon. I do agree with the above poster that a digital video camera might be the next big thing from them...

[phillypocket]

Thanks zkmusa, I thought so.

Though a digital camera with a hard drive is an interesting idea, I don't think I'd want all my digital eggs in that one basket. Although I could certainly take enough pictures to fill up a hard drive, I like the flexablity of 1) being able to switch cards in my camera (including my microdrive), and 2) using the cards I invested in in a new camera, or a freinds camera which may better suit my needs at the time. If this product is real, it's definately aimed at the snapshot crowd. (not that I don't love taking snapshots, I do. But I like the option of more flexability. Even If my skill set isn't quite up to the task :P )

BTW, one difference between this the mp3 player market is that consumer electronic companies really hadn't embraced the mp3 wave. They had players out there, but they were half hearted at best. (I still have yet to find an mp3 player which is compelling). However, image company's have embraced, extended and ran away with digital. Most companies are in their fourth or so generation. You get excellent picture quality at reasonable to low cost. There are snapshot cameras every where. About the only companies that are still dipping their toe are polaroid on the low end and medium format companies like Mamiya and Hassablad, Rollie(?flex) ( however someone who uses those cameras feel free to correct that, I can't even dream of them $$$$). So I'm not quite so sure apple will have the same advantage of a bunch of half harted competitors.

[bdegroodt]

Apple's QuickTake was my first digital camera! I don't think they'll be coming back to that market any time soon. I can't think of any major pain in that market that isn't already addressed by the existing manufacturers or desktop software (iLife, etc.).

Maybe a video camera. That's a market that's still a little screwed up (tapes and sizes and standards). I won't get on my Sony soapbox (I hate them with a wasted $1500 passion!!!), but they really opened my eyes to how evil they are in pursuit of a market via proprietary standards. Apple could bring a "plays well with others and is simple to use" twist to the market, and I'd buy.

[Gary Sheynkman]

although I think that a digicam is unlikely, what I do predict is a D-Snap-like device that is a compact all-around that will play music, record video, take pics...maybe an HD?

[phillypocket]

bdegroodt, Apple... Playing well with others?!?! Non-proprietary? There was a missing smilie, right :wink:

[bdegroodt]

bdegroodt, Apple... Playing well with others?!?! Non-proprietary? There was a missing smilie, right :wink:

Not really. I haven't run into a single item that I use, or want to use that won't work with my Mac. Including MSFT's own PocketPC. So in my world, they've done a great job in supporting my habits.

[mrkablooey]

Why stop at a camera for iPhoto and offer a camcorder for iMovie?

Doubt we'll see either, but you never know!

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

<snob mode>
Digital cameras? From Apple?

HAH!

For the trendy yes, but not for us real photographers! muhahahahah!

</snob mode>

In all seriousness, no, unless Apple does something really special (and I mean really special, none of that printing/sharing/transferring stuff that's been done to death), they'll be Sony and Canon roadkill.