Originally posted by iheiramo Stupid article. iPhone has been leading edge in many things, but never in camera. Nokia was the leading brand in camera tachnology in mobile phones that brought them to the level of the compact cameras before they sold their mobile phone business to Microsoft. Also the global marketshare of iOS is less than 20%, so comparing camera sales against iPhone sales dosen't make sence. There were already plenty of camera phones on the market when the first iPhone was released and still today most of the phones are made by other brands.
Let’s not let detail get in the way of the full story, though. Nobody except the most unaware would suggest that the iPhone has ever had the “best” camera (whatever that means, given that phone camera potential IQ depends on sensor, lens and software/firmware), but prior “dumb” and “smart” phones almost all had inferior cameras (and I had several including Nokias before settling on the iPhone, years ago). Without the debut of the iPhone, all of this may have happened anyway, but probably over a longer period of time.
Whatever Apple detractors might say, it was the iPhone that captured the collective imagination and led to a host of imitators. The combined effect of all that phone camera usage led to the discarding of many dedicated cameras, so I agree that Apple phones didn’t do it on their own, but they were the rock that led to the avalanche.