Apple's iPhone to arrive in early 2007 with 2MP camera

[AppleInsider]

Apple Computer's much anticipated iPod cell phone will include a 2.0-megapixel digital camera when it arrives late first quarter or early second quarter of next year, according to a new report out of Taiwan.

The China Times said Thursday the device, which will merge traditional cellular capabilities with Apple's legendary iPod digital music player technology, has been finalized and released to manufacturing.

According to the report, Foxconn will begin delivering the phones to Apple out of its Fushikang manufacturing facility at run rate of 500,000 to 600,000 per month beginning in February.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based iPod maker is said to have enlisted the help of several component suppliers to provide various aspects of the phone, including Foxconn subsidiary AlusTech, which will fabricate the digital camera module; Largan, which will supply the actual camera lens; and Micron, which will provide the CMOS image sensor.

Intel, Sharp, Tripod Technology, Broadcom and Sunrex are also said to be part of the mix, supplying the memory, LCM display, circuit board, baseband chip and keypad, respectively.

Apple will reportedly tap long-time iPod casing manufacturer Catcher Technology to mold and manufacturer the phone's exterior housing. In recent years, Catcher has supplied casings for Apple's aluminum iPod mini and, most recently, its second-generation clip-on iPod shuffle player.

Contrary to some earlier analyst claims, the report published Thursday indicates that the Apple-branded cell phone will initially be available in only a single model. Pricing information was not disclosed.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[monkeyastronaut]

[ascii]

I guess Foxconn don't know the meaning of NDA. Time to change manufacturers and sue them for the resulting delay.

[Robin Hood]

2 megapixels is about average right now, with "better" camera phones featuring 3+ megapixel cameras.

[jameshopkins]

Originally Posted by Robin Hood

2 megapixels is about average right now, with "better" camera phones featuring 3+ megapixel cameras.

I don't see the iPhone having a camera at all, quality is far too poor for an Apple product.

[bobthenob]

Oh God -- I hope this isn't true. I HATE camera phones. Just a really dumb concept. Instead why not concentrate on making a rock-solid phone with super long battery life, superior voice quality, and can hold a signal in an elevator or sub-basement?

[aross99]

With the crappy optics you get in a fixed lens Cell phone camera, there isn't much value to adding megapixels. It just inflates the size of the images and takes up more space on your flash card. Two megapixels is PLENTY, unless you have a lens that is at least as good as a $99 cheap digital camera.

Now that it looks like we are getting more third party conformation on the iPhone, I want more info on the carrier issue. I'm sure this will be a GSM phone so that it has an international market, but will it be just an unlocked phone I can use with any GSM carrier (ie Cingular or T-mobile), or will I have to hook up with a specific carrier? Maybe Apple will become a MVO as a new carrier?

I'm hoping we have a simple unlocked GSM phone...

Lets get more info on the service side of things!

[aiolos]

Originally Posted by bobthenob

Oh God -- I hope this isn't true. I HATE camera phones. Just a really dumb concept. Instead why not concentrate on making a rock-solid phone with super long battery life, superior voice quality, and can hold a signal in an elevator or sub-basement?

probably because too much of america wants to say, "Look at that, so cool! *OMGOMGOMG*, lets take a PIXSHURE!"

[waytogobuddy]

Originally Posted by bobthenob

Oh God -- I hope this isn't true. I HATE camera phones. Just a really dumb concept. Instead why not concentrate on making a rock-solid phone with super long battery life, superior voice quality, and can hold a signal in an elevator or sub-basement?

snapping pics of your friends for display of who is calling, video chat, etc. could be reasons other than getting a grainy shot of that tourist trap you visited....

[akerman]

Originally Posted by bobthenob

Oh God -- I hope this isn't true. I HATE camera phones. Just a really dumb concept. Instead why not concentrate on making a rock-solid phone with super long battery life, superior voice quality, and can hold a signal in an elevator or sub-basement?

because the camera is a selling point for many teens, regardless of whether they actually use it or not... sad really.

Looking forward to see if apple can make it look good even with a clunky camera.

[jonparadise]

Originally Posted by bobthenob

Oh God -- I hope this isn't true. I HATE camera phones. Just a really dumb concept. Instead why not concentrate on making a rock-solid phone with super long battery life, superior voice quality, and can hold a signal in an elevator or sub-basement?

I'm not really a fan either.

However, a fairly large proportion of my friends use theirs (rather annoyingly) all the time, for them, a camera on the phone is a must.

Plus, if it films nice little quicktime movies too, and connects up to iPhoto and iMovie I'll be much more likely to use one than I do now.

[aiolos]

5 posts at 10:40, lol

[revs]

Originally Posted by bobthenob

Oh God -- I hope this isn't true. I HATE camera phones. Just a really dumb concept. Instead why not concentrate on making a rock-solid phone with super long battery life, superior voice quality, and can hold a signal in an elevator or sub-basement?

Camera phones are great, oldones arent, but new ones with 3MP or more are brilliant. I cant see how the voice quality can get any better - mines perfect on phonesive used - and the signal is great too. This is in the UK. I know the US has piss poor mobiles...

edit: BTW - 2MP is a year or two old, they need 3mp at least in the iPhone.

[doemel]

Originally Posted by bobthenob

Oh God -- I hope this isn't true. I HATE camera phones. Just a really dumb concept. Instead why not concentrate on making a rock-solid phone with super long battery life, superior voice quality, and can hold a signal in an elevator or sub-basement?

Amen.

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by jameshopkins

I don't see the iPhone having a camera at all, quality is far too poor for an Apple product.

Then you really haven't used a recent camera phone. Some of the latest Nokias and SEs have superb cameras in them equal to low to mid range standalone cameras.

eg. See Cabel Sasser's review of the K790/K800 phone...

http://www.cabel.name/2006/11/review...son-k790a.html

That's a 3.2megapixel camera but even the recent P990 with 2megapixel camera was pretty good too.

Saying the quality is too poor never stopped Apple selling crappy 128kbps AAC songs on the iPod so a 2megapixel camera is more than fine.

[macFanDave]

A camera, a phone and an iPod all in one? Interested. . .interested.

Put on a portable bidet, and I'm gettin' one!

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by bobthenob

Oh God -- I hope this isn't true. I HATE camera phones. Just a really dumb concept. Instead why not concentrate on making a rock-solid phone with super long battery life, superior voice quality, and can hold a signal in an elevator or sub-basement?

Why not do BOTH. A decent camera, decent music player AND it being a good phone don't have to be mutually exclusive.

[waytogobuddy]

Originally Posted by revs

Camera phones are great, oldones arent, but new ones with 3MP or more are brilliant. I cant see how the voice quality can get any better - mines perfect on phonesive used - and the signal is great too. This is in the UK. I know the US has piss poor mobiles...

edit: BTW - 2MP is a year or two old, they need 3mp at least in the iPhone.

my d900 (3MP) still takes piss poor pictures.....

[simply258]

i thought the same about the camera, that they're coming out with 3+ nowadays, but then I thought 2MP is fine for Multimedia messaging

[doemel]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

Why not do BOTH. A decent camera, decent music player AND it being a good phone don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Well so far cell phone manufacturers have managed to get at most two of these things right. If Apple gets all three right I'll get one. If they don't get the camera right... I don't care. I'd rather stick to my Nikon D200 anyways instead of shooting crappy sub par cell phone pictures.

[caliminius]

Maybe it's just me, but what I want out of the iPhone is an iPod that also makes calls, not a phone that also plays music. I have a phone that also plays music and it sucks. If you receive a call you can either ignore it or end your music playing session and your place in whatever playlist you were in. I want to just listen to music, take a minute or two to answer the call, then go back to listening to my music like there was no interruption.

I second the idea of ditching the camera. I rarely use mine except by accident (it's odd how many pictures of total blackness end up on my phone).

[Buck]

What's with the iPod pic in the top banner?? http://www.largan.com.tw/products_camera_en.htm

[tomozj]

Won't this make the phone cheaper? I could do with a new phone and I'd love it to be this. I am a 100% Apple fan and this along with my iPod and my Mac would just be perfect.

Apple is entering a whole new market though. There's all this business of networks and locking phones, but I think they'll sell them by themselves in Apple Retail Stores, and let specific carriers sell them in their shops with their SIM cards. The mobile area isn't great IMO, and hopefully Apple can innovate, creating the area a much better one.

-tj

[gene_technics]

Decent for a basic configuration.

[aegisdesign]

Nokia N73 v Samsung d900 v SE K800 (K790 in the USA)

http://www.gsmarena.com/n73_d900_k80...review-102.php

[anandbatra]

For the iPhone to be successful, Apple has to launch it simultaneously in China and India. India added something like 6 million new connections in October itself. The bottom line is: You just can not ignore the fastest growing cell phone markets. If you look at the iPod, it's way overpriced in Asia. Apple can't afford to overcharge(especially in Asia) for their upcoming phone.

On October 19th, Nokia sold 4 lakh(400000) phones in a single day all over India. It's the most number of phones Nokia has sold in a single day ever. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...how/154358.cms

I think Apple can replicate this, provided they market their phone properly. However, I don't see this happening.

[mcloki]

No camera for me. Make it a bluetooth phone with bluetooth headphones/headset for my ipod and we may have something.

I do hope that they will come out with a Treo like phone as well, someday.

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by caliminius

Maybe it's just me, but what I want out of the iPhone is an iPod that also makes calls, not a phone that also plays music. I have a phone that also plays music and it sucks. If you receive a call you can either ignore it or end your music playing session and your place in whatever playlist you were in. I want to just listen to music, take a minute or two to answer the call, then go back to listening to my music like there was no interruption.

You just have a crap phone. My ancient P910 does what you want already.

As ever, the problem with many of the phones on the market today are in the details. It'll take someone as anal as Apple to sort out the details.

Originally Posted by caliminius

I second the idea of ditching the camera. I rarely use mine except by accident (it's odd how many pictures of total blackness end up on my phone).

Depends how crap you camera is too. I've a couple of phones with VGA res cameras - almost useless. The newer 2+ and 3+ megapixel cameras however are good enough for websites and handy enough for most snaps when you don't want to carry a proper camera.

[smartz]

Im trying to not reveal too much here but..

The camera's sole purpose is not for taking photos, per say...

I was a consultant who has worked for Apple in the UK and also with T-Mobile and I can say without a doubt the camera is not for taking snaps.

Lets just say ichat....and im not simply talking mobile to mobile here!

I have already contirbuted some news to the site a few months ago but because of the litegious nature of my work and also the fact that we would love to work with Apple again i have to be extremely careful.

[mowenbrown]

Originally Posted by simply258

i thought the same about the camera, that they're coming out with 3+ nowadays, but then I thought 2MP is fine for Multimedia messaging

They fit the iSight into the MB & MBP, and that serves most purposes. I wouldn't mid being able to snap a picture that appears when the person calls (like I do on my phone now), and having it show up in the address book in thier profile on my MBP, too. I don't really think camera phones were meant to replace a camera, but more a fun gimic for sending picture SMS messages.

[jameshopkins]

Originally Posted by bobthenob

Oh God -- I hope this isn't true. I HATE camera phones. Just a really dumb concept. Instead why not concentrate on making a rock-solid phone with super long battery life, superior voice quality, and can hold a signal in an elevator or sub-basement?

I think that might have something to do with the lack of signal in an elevator or basement not the phone.

Maybe they should try and make it work underwater too.

[jameshopkins]

Originally Posted by simply258

i thought the same about the camera, that they're coming out with 3+ nowadays, but then I thought 2MP is fine for Multimedia messaging

People actually use multi-media messaging?

[anantksundaram]

1) One might be tempted to conclude that 2MP is probably enough in an initial (US-only) rollout. Reasons? Most service providers in the US don't allow one to easily tap into the functionality of a camera phone anyway (e.g., being able to send it as an email attachment to someone without having to subscribe to their stupid 'value-added' -- i.e., overpriced -- ancillary services). Often, it is good for no more than wallpaper on a tiny screen. Furthermore, even if emailing was an easy option with service providers, it takes way too long send attachments of photos taken with more than 2MP cameras.

That said, this device is going to be able to sync with iTunes and iPhoto -- so Apple is potentially missing an opportunity here by not going 3+MP.

2) anandbatra makes a great point above: Apple should introduce this thing in the humongous and fast-growig markets such as India and China simultaneoulsy, and at lower price points -- now that would take AAPL's stock price into the stratosphere!

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by jameshopkins

I think that might have something to do with the lack of signal in an elevator or basement not the phone.

Maybe they should try and make it work underwater too.

And in space too. If they stick a big enough aerial on it I'm sure it could get past the Van Allen belts*.



* No they aren't what are used to keep 80's hair rock spandex pants up.

[smartz]

I tihnk people are missing the boat here somewhat.

In short this is Apples first device which can communicate using a special client IM software which can enable Mac to Mobile Video chat.

The whole point being it doesnt need a large MP camera device to achieve this but rather the bandwidth of the 3g network.

Though there are a number of highly disruptive technologies in the Iphone and this is one of about 6.

[Johnny Mozzarella]

Originally Posted by Buck

What's with the iPod pic in the top banner?? http://www.largan.com.tw/products_camera_en.htm

Looks to me like Largan is trying to convince clone makers (and possibly Apple) to include a camera in their devices.

[aryayush]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

You just have a crap phone. My ancient P910 does what you want already.

In fact, all the Sony Ericsson phones from the WALKMAN, Cybershot and Smartphone serie do that. Some of the latest Nokia N-series phones do that too (though the N90 and N70 didn't).

[jameshopkins]

Originally Posted by aryayush

In fact, all the Sony Ericsson phones from the WALKMAN, Cybershot and Smartphone serie do that. Some of the latest Nokia N-series phones do that too (though the N90 and N70 didn't).

Yeah my SE w800 does that too.

[Le Bugatti Veyron]

Originally Posted by smartz

I tihnk people are missing the boat here somewhat.

In short this is Apples first device which can communicate using a special client IM software which can enable Mac to Mobile Video chat.

The whole point being it doesnt need a large MP camera device to achieve this but rather the bandwidth of the 3g network.

Though there are a number of highly disruptive technologies in the Iphone and this is one of about 6.

I was thinking the exact same thing a few weeks ago. There is no way at the moment to video chat between a a computer and a phone... Also Apple put alot of focus on ichat and it seems to make sense that they will have this secret feature which your revealing.

ichat on your phone and computer is not only genius but its soooo apple.......


I hope it sells in the UK... By the way I read ure earlier post about beta software 4, u seem very interesting..... Please dont get sacked... we want more info from u first....,(only jokin)
p.s is there anything else you can reveal... such as what it looks like...

[smartz]

I saw a preproduction model in London about July last year. At the time Apple was talking to T-mobile who have a great deal of experience in MVNO's i was contracted to look at feasibility of the network as well as differentiating the products features. I got the feeling it was dumbed down, as to not give too much away. ( it used a really crap screen ) apparently they had got these knocked up purely to showcase the UI.

Sadly Apple like you to work in isolation, we joked it was like a terrorist cell, that way they can cut you off without you knowing too much.