What if the first camera you ever owned was a camera phone? This is the case for most people in Africa. Given that most people here with a camera phone do not have a computer or access to a printer, it fundamentally alters the purpose of photography. The main purpose seems to be taking photos for immediate showing to the photographee. Another purpose is self-documentation of life, family, whatever. Again, the camera phone acts as a kind of multi-media business card whereby the owner shows you their life in a series of photographs on the handset.

 

I think this has profound importance for the design of future camera phones. The camera phone is not (a) A digital camera which can be used to make phone calls (the Sony Ericsson approach) or (b) A phone with a gimmick camera attached - for many people the handset is the only way they can record and present their lives to others. I hope to work on this idea a bit more when I start at Microsoft.