[Paul the Sunman]

Quite true.

And digital music killed record stores.

And digital video killed video rental stores.

So what is going to kill the smartphone ...?

[photoptimist]

So what is going to kill the smartphone ...?

Great question!

Whatever kills the smartphone is going to need some way of inputting instructions -- Amazon's Echo/Alexa would sure love to replace the iPhone.

But whatever kills the smartphone is also going to need a visual interface. A smartspeaker seems like too limited an output device.

There are lots of people that like the idea of direct input to the eyes but Google Glasses didn't exactly take over the world.

[mohb]

The mobile phone and then the smartphone really killed a lot of devices.

The world moves on and the past can't be changed, what difference does it make what device makes what?

[beno]

At least they're still shipping more cameras than 30 years ago. We seem to have reached a plateau since 2015, but I think that may go even further down a bit if smartphones continue to improve cameras, leaving only the enthusiasts and pro on the markets and killing the compact point and shoot totally.

[normhead]

I remember everybody going on about their iphone with a 5 megapickle camera and how amozing it was, meanwhile my Nokia was 12megapickles.

Do I sense a little bit of jealousy? Is a Rodney Dangerfield clip in line here? 'I don't get no respect."

OK then, you tell me, why when people think smart phones, they think iPhones?

Someone just gave me an iPhone 5, I'm already doing things I couldn't figure out how to do on my android LG, which has basically been related tot he trash heap. It's amazing how whenever Apple anything is mentioned the haters come out of the wood work. Something about Apple really rots their socks. Oh, ya, they hate that hippy Steve Jobs and everything he stood for. Kinda like the American right wingers still spreading the hate for Obama.

On this forum, saying "Apple" is almost as bad as saying "pentax." Noether seems to have done a damn thing that's worthwhile in the minds of some. It's curious.

Haters gonna hate.

https://www.flickr.com/cameras

Read it and weep.

[reh321]

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.

But Apple is the company who advertises "More pictures are taken with our phone each day than with any other camera".
I don't know how Galaxy compares in volume.

[normhead]

But Apple is the company who advertises "More pictures are taken with our phone each day than with any other camera".
I don't know how Galaxy compares in volume.

Click on the link. All will be revealed.
Flickr: Camera Finder

Note Pentax Ricoh down there, solidly installed in a combined 13th place.

Note Apple, solidly installed in first place.

[reh321]

The world moves on and the past can't be changed, what difference does it make what device makes what?

Profits.

The money from people who don't purchase a PowerShot because they already have an iPhone doesn't go to Canon so they can't use it to advance their technology

The money from people who don't purchase a CoolPix because they already have an iPhone doesn't go to Nikon so they can't use it to advance their technology.

ad nauseum

The money from people who don't purchase one of those P&S cameras because they already have an iPhone does go to Apple so they can use it to advance their technology.

This could easily explain why Samsung dropped their NX line so they could put it into their Galaxy line and try to keep pace with Apple

[Rondec]

Video killed the radio star?

Auto tune killed actual singers?

The reality is that as far as camera brands go, things have returned to the pre-digital boom that hit ILCs. People who just wanted to take snap shots of their kids do it with their phones and those who are more serious still gravitate to ILCs. As far as camera stores dying, they have been hurt by a number of things, including internet sales. It was hard for them to compete with B and H and Adorama and Amazon on price, particularly if those companies weren't charging sales tax. At the same time, a lot of them, like Ritz weren't offering any particular level of customer support or service that attracted folks to come in as compared to just buying on the web.

[RGlasel]

Read it and weep.

We're #13, we're #13!!

At least in the days of old, when film was gold, taking pictures of nothing cost money. Now that a photograph costs nothing to develop, we get an overflowing stream of worthless pictures.

Whatever kills the smartphone is going to need some way of inputting instructions -- Amazon's Echo/Alexa would sure love to replace the iPhone.But whatever kills the smartphone is also going to need a visual interface. A smartspeaker seems like too limited an output device.

What amazes me is how little smartphones are used for talking. Which is why Alexa, Echo and Siri Homepod will be short-lived fads. The key difference in modern communication is not that we have all become content creators, it is that we send copies of amateur content (which may or may not have been personally produced) to people we know, which is very different from professional content producers broadcasting to strangers. Sending a text message is a type of authoring, with less interaction than simply talking to another person.

So what is going to kill the smartphone ...?

Microwave ovens. If you don't want to receive messages, the only option is to put your smartphone in a microwave oven. Just like it is impossible to ignore a ringing phone, it is impossible to leave a smartphone in a pocket or purse without looking at it dozens of times an hour and it is assumed that any messages sent to your phone will be received and read. It is also assumed that you will eventually give in and react to those messages. Putting your smartphone in a microwave oven not only prevents the delivery of messages, it is very easy to ignore anything inside the oven. I can't tell you how many times I've left a cup of coffee in the microwave oven because I was distracted and walked away while it was being heated.

[normhead]

I recently read a post from one of those futures guys, who's belief was, the first DSLR company to build iPhone (or advanced Smart Phone technology, into a DSLR was going to be the next big thing in DSLRs.

[reh321]

I recently read a post from one of those futures guys, who's belief was, the first DSLR company to build iPhone (or advanced Smart Phone technology, into a DSLR was going to be the next big thing in DSLRs.

I can't imagine carrying my DSLR everywhere with me.
The ladies in my family scream at me if I don't take my smart phone with me.
No smart phone can replace my DSLR.
I will always have each.

[Wheatfield]

Video killed the radio star?

Auto tune killed actual singers?

The reality is that as far as camera brands go, things have returned to the pre-digital boom that hit ILCs. People who just wanted to take snap shots of their kids do it with their phones and those who are more serious still gravitate to ILCs. As far as camera stores dying, they have been hurt by a number of things, including internet sales. It was hard for them to compete with B and H and Adorama and Amazon on price, particularly if those companies weren't charging sales tax. At the same time, a lot of them, like Ritz weren't offering any particular level of customer support or service that attracted folks to come in as compared to just buying on the web.

A lot of things happened concurrently. There was no one big thing that took out camera stores. Internet sales had been around since long before the internet. When I was looking at buying my first camera in 1973, there was a Hong Kong company called T.M Chan that sent out a delicious little catalogue that was printed on rice paper and had delightfully bad English. The mail order camera business in New York wasn't even open when I saw my first T.M Chan catalog. B&H came along in 1973, Adorama was 1977.
I can't speak for the USA, but camera gear mail order in Canada was pretty much non existent until the internet came along. I ordered a few things from New York pre internet, and I recall the pusher that I habitated complained a bit about getting undercut by the New York houses 20 years ago, but for the most part, most people shopped local.
What started the demise of camera stores here, and I suspect this will hold true most places, was the rise of minilabs in grocery stores. All of a sudden you had mega stores that sold pretty much everything using one hour photo finishing as a loss leader ruse to get people in the door. The plan was to get them to drop off their film, wait in the store and shop for an hour (hopefully buying more than they needed out of sheer boredom), picking up their prints and leaving.
This had a serious effect on the bottom line of camera stores who had been dependent on photofinishing as their bread and butter. The average P&S user wasn't quality driven enough to care all that much if the camera store lab had better technicians and was hopefully putting out a better product, they were price driven, plain and simple.
Over a fairly short period of time camera stores started to fail, and the knowledgeable people who worked for them were either in the wind or went to work for the companies that had killed their previous employers. I went from working in full service wholesale labs to a camera store one hour lab to a Walmart photo center.
Digital pretty much killed that business. These places still have dry print kiosks, but they are staffed by the people who work in the electronics department who periodically go over and put a new paper or dye sub roll onto a printer and go back to selling cheap home electronics.
There is a lot of cause and effect at play, for example, camera stores not being able to attract good people had to do with failing revenues.
Mail order sales were little more than a mosquito bite to brick and mortar stores, anyone who didn't buy specialty magazines such as Popular Photography or Shutterbug wouldn't have a clue that Adorama existed.
Then the internet came along and everything changed in the retail market. The New York houses were able to get their names out there, along came Amazon, etc. Brick and Mortar stores weren't able to prepare for this fast enough. The New York houses had mail order supply chains already, morphing from mail order to internet sales was a fairly easy transition.
Brick and mortar operations that depended on foot traffic got caught by a tsunami that they simply weren't able to prepare for before it hit.

[RGlasel]

I recently read a post from one of those futures guys, who's belief was, the first DSLR company to build iPhone (or advanced Smart Phone technology, into a DSLR was going to be the next big thing in DSLRs.

Which is patently ridiculous, your Nostradamus has somehow never seen a DSLR and has no clue why people take a smartphone with them everywhere. But it is so easy to become a Latter Day Prophet that you have to say ridiculous things or no one will pay attention to you (if I resemble that remark, it is okay because I am not a real person when I am online).

[Wheatfield]

I can't imagine carrying my DSLR everywhere with me.
The ladies in my family scream at me if I don't take my smart phone with me.
No smart phone can replace my DSLR.
I will always have each.

We are not representative of the general population.