Apple Video Cameras!
http://www.macrumors.com/2009/05/01/next-iphone-to-easily-record-edit-and-share-movies/
It seems like most people believe that video recording is just going to be another iPhone feature... I'm still wavering on this though. If it were me, it would make more sense to have a separate camera device. It's not like Apple has eliminated iPods, even though the iPhone has a software iPod inside it. Apple is in the hardware business, always has been, and they want to sell more devices. If I already own an iPhone, am I really more likely to buy another iPhone just to get video features? Wouldn't Apple rather sell me a second device?
The Flip is a dedicated HD video camera, and it has 8G of storage. If Apple wanted to compete with that, they'd need a device with equal video storage capacity, better lenses, battery life, and so forth. Putting more demands on the iPhone battery doesn't make a lot of sense; as it is, WiFi and 3G suck the life out of it pretty fast, I can't imagine what video recording on top of all of that would reduce battery life to.
What I would do: Introduce *limited* video recording capability on the next iPhone. A somewhat better, but not super high quality lens to take video with. Then, I would create the iVid, another device with a higher quality lens, autofocus, and the optimized-for-iPhone iMovie editing suite. It would come in 8GB and 16GB flavors, have still camera functionality, and of course be totally integrated with iPhoto and iMovie, with native H.264 processing. It would probably also have WiFi on it for transfer to your Apple TV or other computers. Just like iPod touches are dedicated for audio playback and storage, the iVid would be dedicated video recording, playback and storage. It'll also be cheaper than the iPhone, and won't have all the political/financial rigamarole of telecommunications companies associated with it - and it'll be yet another platform for the App Store. So I bet people could even download Skype onto it, and just use it as a VOIP phone without ever needing a phone company's permission!!
It seems like most people believe that video recording is just going to be another iPhone feature... I'm still wavering on this though. If it were me, it would make more sense to have a separate camera device. It's not like Apple has eliminated iPods, even though the iPhone has a software iPod inside it. Apple is in the hardware business, always has been, and they want to sell more devices. If I already own an iPhone, am I really more likely to buy another iPhone just to get video features? Wouldn't Apple rather sell me a second device?
The Flip is a dedicated HD video camera, and it has 8G of storage. If Apple wanted to compete with that, they'd need a device with equal video storage capacity, better lenses, battery life, and so forth. Putting more demands on the iPhone battery doesn't make a lot of sense; as it is, WiFi and 3G suck the life out of it pretty fast, I can't imagine what video recording on top of all of that would reduce battery life to.
What I would do: Introduce *limited* video recording capability on the next iPhone. A somewhat better, but not super high quality lens to take video with. Then, I would create the iVid, another device with a higher quality lens, autofocus, and the optimized-for-iPhone iMovie editing suite. It would come in 8GB and 16GB flavors, have still camera functionality, and of course be totally integrated with iPhoto and iMovie, with native H.264 processing. It would probably also have WiFi on it for transfer to your Apple TV or other computers. Just like iPod touches are dedicated for audio playback and storage, the iVid would be dedicated video recording, playback and storage. It'll also be cheaper than the iPhone, and won't have all the political/financial rigamarole of telecommunications companies associated with it - and it'll be yet another platform for the App Store. So I bet people could even download Skype onto it, and just use it as a VOIP phone without ever needing a phone company's permission!!