Capable Trumps Superior

This will mark a sea change in electronics. For the first time I can remember capable will drive superior from the market. Times have changed.

I’ve been reading about Samsung’s new point-and-shoot camera. Look at it from the back and it resembles a smartphone. That’s because it’s got a smartphone’s operation system, Android.

Making a single use products with a flexible, expandable and upgradeable operating systems is a pretty new concept. It’s also one that makes sense. Android has gotten very powerful and running a camera is embedded deeply in its DNA.

I don’t think it’s going to sell well.

Sorry Samsung. Point and shoot cameras occupy a space no longer in demand. Why carry a discrete camera when you’ve already got one built into your phone?

I know, there’s lots Samsung’s camera can do that cellphones can’t. That’s a distinction without a difference. Point and shoot was already too complex. Most people with digital cameras were already limiting their shots to what a smartphone can now do and are pretty satisfied with the result.

Settling for smaller and easier is the next model for digital gear. That’s part of the reason why desktop computer sales are way off. Laptops and tablets aren’t as powerful or versatile. They’re smaller. They’re simpler.

This will mark a sea change in electronics. For the first time I can remember capable will drive superior from the market. Times have changed.

7 thoughts on “Capable Trumps Superior”

    1. I understand your point. Maybe I didn’t properly make mine.

      OS2 and Windows both attempted to do the same thing. People now accept devices that promise to do less.

  1. I think at some point people will begin to understand that superior is far better than capable soon. You’re starting to see it in the Gaming Market with a surge in PC Gaming again which might bring around that market.

  2. I’m probably in the minority, but I have to disagree. I’m eligible for the free cell-phone, one of several programs offered, and they don’t have cameras. I would rather use my digital camera anyway, as the zoom and close-up features are there, handy and great, easily accessed. Also, about Laptops; I waited and got one with capabilities as close to my desktop as I could get, reasonably priced. I’ve just made a DVD slideshow up of old photos, with music and could’ve added narration, the same program and features I used when I had the desktop, no problem. I think people who want simple will go that way, but if you want and need more features, the laptops are improving rapidly and cameras have it over phones economically, too.

  3. I’ll give up my Nikon DSLR when you pry it from my cold dead hands!

    All kidding aside, I am blown away by the pictures that my Samsung GIII can produce, and as you once said the best camera is the one that’s with you.

  4. I, too, prefer a camera to a cell phone camera. More features, better lenses, more of everything needed for great photos. But sometimes capable does win over superior…i.e. VHS over BETA. A lot of the time it is because of cost over quality….for instance, if you use your cell phone camera you save on the cost of the camera that you don’t buy.

  5. I prefer a camera over a cell phone camera. But, there are times when ya wanna just send it to someone for clarification on something or need to send some image of a machine part to give someone an idea of what your talking about. It’s good for that. But, I won’t take an award winning picture with my cell phone.

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