Back in 2011 I told Nikon executives that it was not useful to pursue a relationship with a phone maker. Others at the time, particularly Leica, were doing so. My contention was that the overall sales and margins on the R&D and supply for the small sensor/lens combo would be too small to pursue. Just licensing the Nikon name would have been a better economic choice, and there you’re still only talking about peanuts.
Meanwhile, I believed that the camera-as-lens attachment ideas both Olympus and Sony pursued wouldn’t work either, because they had a dual problem: (1) they had to control said camera-as-lens from an app; and (2) communication would be via bluetooth/Wi-Fi, which is notoriously unreliable as a full-time solution. #1 meant that the result would be an add-on and live on top of the software stacks, undermining performance. #2 meant fiddly settings and lagging connectivity.
I’ll still stand by those statements, but I wasn’t thinking enough out of the box (unusual for me). Now that we’re in a world of magnetic connections and USB-C, the work-with-smartphone maker problem becomes far simpler, and opens up opportunities that weren’t there in 2011. Simply put, add a USB-C port to the MagSafe ring. This gives you both physical and electronic attachment. MagSafe rings are big and strong enough to support an m4/3 or APS-C camera-as-lens, for sure, producing an upsell for the phone user who wants to offer better imaging to their top customers.
The camera company would still need to have good low-level engineering access within the phone company, thus it would have to be a partnership type agreement, but this could be a win-win for both parties. My problem in 2011 was that I couldn’t see any win-wins, only win-loss, loss-loss, or loss-win.
The only problem with the USB MagSafe approach is that it may be too late to have meaningful traction today. Image sensors in phones have gotten bigger, and they’re now firing off with multiple focal lengths, too. Gimbal cameras sit right above what the phones do, and dedicated compact cameras are making a comeback. Still, it’s worth contemplating how you attract and hold the young. They start with smartphones, so how do you get them across into the dedicated camera world eventually? We’ve seen the camera companies try that with vlogging type cameras with modest success, particularly Sony. But when everyone is doing that, how do you stand out? Well, you could stand out by both having a long legacy in cameras as well a significant smartphone connection. That pretty much leaves Sony as the only company that could pursue the MagSafe camera add-on by itself, but I think the failure of the QX line probably has them loathe to try that camera-as-lens approach.
I’m only writing this to be consistent. I’ve written about how I was right about some ideas before anyone else thought of them. So I need to also write about when I’ve been wrong. No one’s perfect at understanding how to reach the best future. Sometimes the path has a few twists and turns, as well as dead-ends and cul-de-sacs.