Monday, November 24, 2008

Exciting Times for Smartphones and Cameras

There's never been a better time not to buy a smartphone. 

With its iPhone, Apple has again innovated an entirely new standard of quality and design...and, for the first time, drawn credible competition. The new Razr and the new Blackberry may not be perfect, but they offer a fancy touchscreen, slick interface, look real good, and have started to push forward with features notoriously missing from the iPhone (e.g. video, cut and paste, zoom, flash, removable battery). There's every indication that Apple will compete aggressively to defend their position...something they've never particularly had to do. And that can only mean a much better product at a much better price. To buy a smartphone now would be crazy; we'll be seeing amazing things in the next year (if we're not all too poor and unemployed to buy such things).

Same for cameras; Micro Four Thirds technology, recently introduced with Panasonic’s DMC-G1 camera (see David Pogue's review), allows S.L.R. quality and flexibility without the bulk and full expense of a reflex lens. The Panasonic is still pretty large, pretty expensive, and lacks some important features, but other manufacturers are busily working on the technology and in the next year we'll see some amazing products.

So...take good care of your smartphone and your camera. This is no time to replace them!

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