I’m not terribly surprised by this potential development and it’s one of the six things I want to see in the next iPhone. We’re talking about support for recording and possibly transmitting video directly from your handset. InformationWeek has dug through the recently granted Apple patents and comes up with some pointers to this functionality:
“In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the back of the device, opposite the touch screen display on the front of the device, so that the touch screen display may be used as a viewfinder for either still and/or video image acquisition. In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device so that the user’s image may be obtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other video conference participants on the touch screen display.”
If Apple does include video recording in a new handset, it surely won’t be the first time we’ve seen that. Qik already streams live video from handsets on Windows Mobile, Symbian S60 and the BlackBerry platforms, for example; even on the iPhone if you want to jailbreak it. The difference (if you could call it one) is that Qik isn’t familiar to your average mainstream consumer.
It’s a safe bet that we will see this function on Apple’s next handset and I think it’s also a safe bet that many people will “oooh” and “ahhh” over it as if Apple was the first to offer it. That’s the power of widespread name-brand recognition and great marketing. Regardless of who brought it to the table first, it’s definitely something I’m looking forward to. That’s pending details of what AT&T might charge for this type of service; there’s no guarantee it would part of the existing 3G data plan.
Still, if we can just get the other five items from my list addressed, my Palm Pre lust might be diminished. Not extinguished though. ;)
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