Originally posted by monochrome Those who actually need JPEG connectivity (Phone, tablet or laptop) can use a Mobi card. Setup takes two minutes and transfer time is instantaneous. Cloud or network linking requires a Pro X2 card - slower, but available, and in-camera Wi-Fi wouldn't be any faster. RAW transfer is MUCH faster USB by card reader and always will be.
In-camera Wi-Fi is a feature I don't need and an expense I don't want to pay for - like Wi-Fi in a car (or a backup camera on a car).
How much does in-camera wifi really cost? The chips are produced in their tens of millions now so my guess is a very small sum (as distinct from a camera-maker adding a substantial mark-up for what they consider a valuable new feature but which many users may consider a basic expectation).
For the past few years, the standard bundle with DSLRs has consisted of a USB cable and a stand-alone software programme (Silkypix, e.g.). A USB card reader is not included with the bundle, so users have to find one for themselves unless their laptop has one built in.
It is now proposed that the standard bundle consists of a USB cable, wifi in the camera, stand-alone software, and an app for IOS/Android.
This is nothing more than evolutionary progress to reflect changes in the PC/software market. It may also reflect changes in the way cameras and their output are used - online versus print, for instance - but that is a secondary issue really and hard to quantify.
Elsewhere on these boards, Pentax are often praised for taking a solid, evolutionary view of camera development (K7 to K5 to K5II, for instance).
Quite why this example of evolutionary progress - wifi gradually replacing USB and cards for many uses - is causing folks to throw up their hands is a mystery. The world has moved on and if camera-makers don't they will pay a price. Isn't it all pretty simple?
Of course, there is also the question of what any new IOS/Android app could do. It might just be a simple viewer. It might be a RAW converter and editor. It might be a tethering and control programme. It might be a picture editor which uses the camera to do the editing rather than the tablet or phone - and when the editing is done the camera sends the finished jpeg to the device. All that is up to the imagination of the camera-maker. But none of this alters the basic evolutionary change in the market: we are now in a world of wifi and tablets.