According to the Korea Times, Samsung is planning on equipping a line of cameras with mobile television and a function that will allow users to play movies downloaded from computers.
“We will release the versatile digital camera early next year after terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) services are launched,” Samsung Techwin spokesman Ahn Ji-hoon said recently in an interview with the Korea Times.
Terrestrial DMB enables people “on the go to enjoy crystal-clear video, CD-quality audio and data via handheld gadgets or in-car terminals for free.”
Samsung is looking to compete with DMB enabled phones arguing that the new cameras will feature screens as large as 3 inches diagonally – nearly an inch larger than conventional phones. They were also quick to note other advantages like the ability to play movies or video clips and a significant edge in the battery life department.
“With products such as the DMB cameras, we aim to dictate the dominant trend of digital convergence and become one of the top three makers of digital cameras by 2007,’’ Ahn said.”
This is all well and good – but it remains to be seen whether digital convergence of this nature will extend sucessfully to cameras. After all, a phone is something that makes sense to carry on your person everywhere you go. Can the same be said for digital cameras? I can see it being useful in a travel situation – but it doesn’t seem to make sense in an everyday, everywhere sort of way. I simply don’t see it being successful in direct competition with DMB phones.
Posted by Sean
