Despite having only a 2 megapixel camera, the iPhone continues to be the most popular cameraphone used on Flickr. Yeah yeah, we all know that the iPhone camera doesn’t have the ability to zoom or autofocus, and that other cameraphones might shoot in higher quality, but that hasn’t stopped iPhone users from snapping away to their hearts content.
As you can see, the Nokia N95, with its 5 megapixel camera, seems to be stagnating as the iPhone continues its climb. But things were more closely matched even as recently as this past August.
August 2008
And here were the most popular camera phones on Flickr in May of 2008.
Keep in mind that this data doesn’t indicate that the iPhone is the best or even necessarily the most used cameraphone out on the market. It could very well be that a disproportionate number of Flickr users happen to use iPhones. Another factor behind the data could be the ease with which iPhone users can automatically send their photos to Flickr.
Critics like to harp on the fact that the iPhone camera isn’t up to par with other cameraphones on the market, but they don’t realize that when it comes to taking important quality photos, the majority of consumers would never dream of using a cameraphone in the first place. Cameraphones are mostly used for quick snapshots where ease of use and convenience are more important than the ability to zoom in, for example. People who are serious about capturing events in high photo quality use dedicated cameras. But for everyone else who just wants to take quick pictures of people on the street, protest marches, and shots of New York City at night, the iPhone seems to work just fine.
About these graphs (Via Flickr):
These graphs show the number of Flickr members who have uploaded at least one photo or video with a particular camera on a given day over the last year.
The graphs are “normalized”, which is a fancy way of saying that they automatically correct for the fact that more people join Flickr each day: the graph moving up or down indicates a change in the camera’s popularity relative to all other cameras used by Flickr members.
October 27th, 2008 at 3:45 am
My guess is that the network capabilities of the iphone makes it easier to upload those pictures directly to flickr. There are tones of applications for that on the iphone. It could be a case of accessibility and quality.With other phones you need to get home and sync with your pc before putting up photos to flickr.
October 27th, 2008 at 4:13 am
Touch Pro FTW
October 27th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Great, so we have Apple to thank for the millions of crappy snapshots littering Flickr.
November 1st, 2008 at 3:44 am
Funny thing is, as an iPhone owner I can attest that its camera, despite being “not too bad”, is one of its biggest weaknesses. It needs a 4MP camera that’s capable of recording video at decent quality also. A flash for the camera would be welcomed also, as the iPhone is useless when it’s not bright.
And on the software front, don’t get me started. It’s the best phone I’ve ever owned, by far, but lacks some simple software features it surprisingly shouldn’t. I don’t use MMS, personally, but they should have added it ages ago for all the people who do. We rarely need copy & paste, but when we do we’re shit out of luck, that’s not good enough. Amazing phone, but a lot of untapped potential, still.