We are charging at a frightening pace toward the ability to record at least 720p HD video on Mobile devices, following the introduction of a raft (e.g. Flip Mino HD, Toshiba P10/S10) of Mini-camcorders, at very low price-points (~£100). It would appear the miniaturisation process of the chipsets to pass-through and process hi-res video has well and truly happened, and it won’t be long before most manufacturers are including these in order to differentiate their products.
Samsung are out there first, with their Omnia HD device – not surprising really, given their expertise in other HD CE (consumer electronics), and their predisposition to whacking great big image sensors (i.e. 8-12MP cameras) in their devices 🙂
The largely ninja-like (in it’s stealth thus far) Apple next-gen device is also fabled to have video recording AND editing – now it would make a lot of sense for that to be HD also, though in some sense I’d bet against it because Apple don’t lead in all their hardware – they don’t need to, since they have the marketing halo that all other manufacturers would kill for!
But I’d bet LG, Nokia, and potentially Sony Ericsson will strongly be considering how to mainline HD recording in to their handsets ASAP – they have successfully marginalised the digital camera for stills, and camcorders (in the £500-600 range) will be the next bastion to fall – mark my words…!