Why the Apple Camera is the obvious next step in Apple's plan

Back in 1994, my Apple QuickTake 100 was more than a novelty. The first consumer digital camera I’d used, it gave me the power to capture images from Lollapalooza’s Electric Carnival and review the images on my computer the next day. It didn’t do much by today’s standards.  Still images were 640x480 and it held 8 of them!  The small (at the time) form factor felt a bit like looking through Luke Skywalker’s binoculars and downloading required a cable connection.

Today, I work with a wide range of connected cameras and expectations on the technology are much higher. Images are captured at 4K30fps video. Bluetooth and Wifi connect cameras to phones, cloud services, and social media.  Chipsets from companies like Ambarella provide the silicon for incredible onboard imaging and enable manufacturers to explore new form factors and uses. Cameras think and fly, they're in cars and houses, they’re carried and worn.

Mark Zuckerberg talks about the strategy of unbundling the big blue app as Facebook moved from Desktop to Mobile - shifting from one monolithic app to single purpose apps. A similar shift is happening when we move from mobile interfaces to wearable and ubiquitous interfaces but in this case, it’s the hardware user interface being unbundled into an ecology of connected devices. This makes sense because we're taking all the technology that converged into a single device in our pockets and bags, and bringing the important parts of user interface back out where we can quickly use them. Combined with innovations in the hardware development process, the ecology will see more and more innovation.  As Joi Ito pointed out at an MIT Media Lab discussion, much like evolution, devices and user experiences will live and die and the strong will survive. The challenge is how we make the best user experience.  

Last week, Apple launched the Apple Watch. While many are focusing on the success or failure of the watch, I’m interested in the signal it represents: that Apple may be exploring devices that unbundle interface and integrate with the computation and connectivity of the phone and the Internet.  When such devices work as an ensemble, in concert together (like the Apple Watch and iPhone), or as an ecology of devices that communicate well (like open standards used by GoPro's platform), there’s a potential for new and better user experience.

Which brings me back to the Apple Camera.  The watch is an obvious step for Apple because it’s a familiar device that benefits from ensemble integration and what my colleague Ann-Caryn Cleveland refers to as harmonic design. An Apple Camera would benefit from the same integration and design.  GoPro has certainly shown that there’s a market for unbundling the camera. XiaoMi sees this future with the Yi and someone in Cupertino must be giving the idea more than a quick take.

What would you want in a great connected camera experience? Let me know in the comments.

Note: I added the paragraph on unbundling interface to explain why we might want a camera, and other devices, separate from the existing mobile phone.