Nokia’s 41 megapixel cameraphone, the 808 PureView, will start shipping later this month in a handful of countries. It’s going to cost well over 600 Euros, which is ridiculous for a Symbian smartphone, but Nokia hopes that once you know a little something about how the camera works that it will be impossible to say no to this thing. The Finnish handset maker recently released a video that’s dedicated to the roughly 400 people who worked on the PureView over the past five years to do just that. They detail how the concept for the 41 megapixel sensor came to them at a bar in Japan, and then it goes through a series of montages explaining the steps that were taken to finally bring the phone to market.
It pains us to say this, but the 808 PureView isn’t going to sell a ton of units. Nokia will limit the number of countries that will get the PureView, and what’s worse is that distributors are likely going to refuse to carry this thing because it’s too expensive for what it offers. Now yes, the camera in the PureView will eventually be used in a Windows Phone, but we don’t know how long that’s going to take, nor how many compromises will be made to make the sensor smaller. You do realize that the PureView is 18 mm thick, right? That’s two iPhones on top of each other. That’s not going to fly, regardless if it’s being backed by Symbian or Windows Phone.
What we’re ultimately hoping for is Nokia licensing out their technology for other companies to use. Imagine how awesome it would be if all smartphones, not just Nokia smartphones, were able to take amazing photos? Anyway, what’s likely going to happen is that the 808 will be reverse engineered, at which point Samsung or Sony will release sensors that are equally as capable.
[Via: All About Symbian]