Vodafone in Japan introduces Sharp's two megapixel camera phone

From picturephoning.com I learned about Wireless Watch Japan reporting that Vodafone in Japan has introduced a two megapixel camera phone from Sharp. The Sharp V601SH (see below) has some nice features.

The V601SH includes such features as a Secure Digital card slot, a 20x zoom (I'm not a fan of digital zooms), automatic flash, the ability to bracket exposures (a very nice feature), the ability to create a collage by automatically overlapping a maximum of five photos, rapid fire shooting of up to 25 photos and the ability to shoot MPEG videos at 320 x 240 at 15 frames per second.

The handset also includes Bow-Linqual Connect software that is designed to translate the meaning of a dog's bark into text and pictograms so that humans can understand what the dog is "saying." The application is included, but to use it you have to purchase a separate Bow-Linqual Connect card.

If you're interested in this application, perhaps you'd be interested in purchasing some stock options from me!

Speed and price, not resolution

I don't think the introduction of a two megapixel camera phone is as great a leap as a one megapixel handset. As I wrote in my other wireless data Weblog, it was a landmark event when Japanese cellular operator J-Phone introduced the first one megapixel handset.

A one megapixel handset means the difference between a fuzzy 640 x 480 image when printed and a decent quality photo when printed. It's the difference between Economy Class and Business Class. A two megapixel handset certainly is nice and will encourage more people to use a cellular phone as their main digital camera -- even if they rarely use wireless to send a photo.

But the most difficult problem is not increasing the resolution but, rather, offering cellular data upload speeds that are fast enough to accommodate large graphics files and pricing the airtime/service at a reasonable rate. Data rates and pricing are not minor problems. A one megapixel photo is three times the resolution of a 640 x 480 VGA photo.

United States cellular networks will have a tough enough time supporting one megapixel uploads.

Comments

[corona]

need v601sh java games & copy java from memory please help mee thanks

[Digital Camera]

Hi can anyone tell me the best place for information on new Digital Camera equipment?

[simon rogers]

hi i have just bought a sharp v601sh phone can anyone tell me where the sim card goes ????????

[Daniel Scuka]

BTW, original story is on the Wireless watch Japan media project, found at http://www.wirelesswatch.jp.

[Daniel Scuka]

While the difference between 1- and 2-megapixel resolution/size may seem irrelevant, it's actually a significant leap. From the carrier point of view, users with high(er)-resolution camera phones tend to generate more packet usage (and hence more revenue). From the device maker point of view, a 2-megapixel camera phone (and, later in 2004, 2.x and higher) comes a lot closer to replacing mass-market digi cams - thus accelerating device convergence. Finally, from the industry point of view, and since it will be a while yet before cheap 3G bandwidth is widely available in Europe and the US, the advent of 2+ megapixel resolutions means that kiosks, print booths, and other tertiary services will be in demand (since no one can get the pics off the handset via the network - so they'll have to use memory sticks and kisoks). Fuji Photo, Kodak, et al are already massively reinveting themselves as "digital photo service providers" as traditional chemical photography morphs into a niche. In this game, more is always, always better.