Sad news today. Steve Jobs passed away. A visionary that had the talent to take tuff and revolutionary decisions. Not everything he has “invented” was successful or admirable but what I liked most about him was that he acted following paths that no others wanted to go.
Looking at the camera industry which is mostly driven by Asian companies I often see a very conservative and anti-risk inclined mentality. I am now guessing what Steve Jobs would have done now as chief of the Sony camera division. How would he develop the next camera? What would be the key features and innovations?
I am just guessing, but I suspect he would:
1) Introduce less cameras than Sony is doing right now.
2) Make camera usability easier and more intuitive.
3) Focus less on technical specs but more on real user needs (What the camera does…just works!).
4) The camera would have full connectivity to Internet and social medias
5) The camera an lenses would not be the center of the camera division, but just a medium of a whole system which has the (mass-)photographer in the center. He would probably create an APP store, accessories, make it easy for other companies to develop software and hardware for the Alpha system.
Those are just my ideas, but I am also honest enough to say that Jobs would probably go far beyond the points I have written here. What do you think?
Fact is I will miss Steve. No matter if you liked him or not, he definitely changed the computer industry.
UDPATE: Yes, Apple did once make a camera the [shoplink 9443 ebay]Quicktake (Click herer to see it on eBay)[/shoplink]. But it has been announced in 1994 before the comeback of Steve in 1996.
92 Responses
being successful at computers doesn’t mean he should be chief of Sony Alpha too
Of course not. We are just making a guess!
Well, Steve Jobs would have never created something like E-Mount & Focus Peaking that gives an option to attach anything else than stuff sold by his company or at least with a big App Store share for them. But I’ve got to admit the NEX user menu might have been a little better then 😉
Apple supports other people’s technology all of the time. Apple is not greedy.
He who’d have made fancy cameras a la Nikon quality but 4 times more expensive…
Apple’s products are better designed, but they are also CHEAPER than the competition.
The myth that Apple products are more expensive comes from people who compare machines made with 4 year old technology to Apple’s current line.
… or windows fans who have nothing else to grasp at to justify not buying macs.
Look, I’ve been using apple before it was Fashionable, when apple was building ugly machines like anyone else but today i could see not one good reason to buy a mac, there was no visible advantage.
I’ve seen so many people having problems whit their macs and I’ve never had problems with any of my Mobile Workstations. My former boss had a macbook pro, the display illumination broke, someone i recently worked with someone who also had a macbook pro and whose keyboard broke after about 2 years. But that’s not all, do you remember the time when iPod’s had failing batteries, i sure do as many of my friends had such iPods, by the way the Batteries where made to fail on purpose and guess what they where manufactured by Sony.
An other point is performance, I’ve been using Dell Precision Mobile Workstations since the last decade or so and they where also on the top on performance. To
give you an example. The best available of what my System is capable of. It’s 15,6
” beeing the same as a Macbook pro. But it has a maximum of 16gb Ram it can hold an raid of 2 2,5″ HDDS + if you need to an miniPCIe SSD, it has a Quadro GPU, an Highend i7 CPU a Smartcard reader, a build in 3g Modem & GPS, Bluetooth, a Tracepoint, an optional Fingerprint Reader, Displayport etc.
A Macbook Pro just couldn’t compete with this and even more important I couldn’t rely on it. The Laptop i used before and still use is now nearly five years old it has been around the globe by plane by car by foot (a lot) and it never failed.
The key point is that thes seemingly professional products Apple is trowing on the market really aren’t because they actually target the mass market, thats also why a macbook pro is that much cheaper the a serious workstations.
I feel sorry for Steve Jobs to dye so young and I feel especially sorry for his family but I don’t feel sorry for Apple. Steve jobs was all about marketing and manipulating peoples desires, they made computers a fashionable product but they also had good reasons to abandon their old slogan “Think different”.
I think Steve Jobs would not fair well with the users of cameras, in the same way he doesn’t fair well with PC users. Because it seems like most people here (as with PC users) are people who look at specs. How big is it? How fast is it?
Steve Jobs never asked these questions, he only wanted things that worked, and worked for his target market.
What form of marketing isn’t manipulation? It’s up to the consumer to realise what they really want/need. Or be like me, a self-proclaimed fanboy and a sucker to good marketing.
I use to work for Sony product marketing let me just say we made alot of unnecessary crap that did not even make to market. At the office anything Apple if used was to be hidden eg iPod MacBooks etc. preventing clients from seeing it. They were preferred over any Vaio or Walkman. All in all there was a sense envy of Steve and Apple Corp. iPods and macs decimated our Walkmans and Vaios. Sony needs to be like Apple Make Products that Work !
He would have made the cameras with 1 button only.
The cameras would tell you how to take a photo and the price of the camera would be 10 times the manufacturing cost!
Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy, but Apple has once tried to make a camera…
Damn… I thought I would be the first poster.
Poor Steve :[
RIP
I don’t think he is poor, he has lived his life well.
He would have died with a smile.
Wish if we had Steve Jobs in the camera industry…
I think a digital Camera by Apple would Look like this:
http://images.wikia.com/ipod/images/9/90/Quicktake_200_front.jpg
…
This was done before Steve got back to Apple. Steve would never approve stuff like this, he even killed Newton pad.
HEY!
Leave the Newton alone!
It was way beyond its time.
My friend still have one and he refuse to sell it to me…
Fujinon lens. Pretty spiffy.
Not mean to be disrespectful but I’m for once glad that he wasn’t Sony chief. If he had been, Sony would probably have been trying to sue its way around instead of competing fair and square with C/N.
As a graphic designer I have used Macs all my life, in fact I owed my carrer to him for Apple’s Macintosh and laser printer invention (along with Adobe’s PostScript language/fonts). He will be deeply missed from now to years to come. May he rest in heaven!
Now back to Sony’s camera business…if someone has Steve’s eyes and guts, he would:
1) design and build only the very best cameras (maybe just few models) with premium price point,
2) dramatically change user interface – no more ISO setting, it will be just aperture & shutter speed – that’s how you control the creative outcome. ISO is hiding behind micro processor and image sensor (the back end stuff),
3) fire whole bunch of Sony Style sales & marketing people, do it Apple store way.
4) open up Alpha mount license so other lens maker can contribute easily.
Compare to other traditional camera makers, Sony is actually in good spot to revolutionize imaging business, what they need is someone like Steve Jobs.
I reckon it would be a point and shoot camera.
Actually doesn’t the Iphone 4s have a 8MP camera with 5 spherical lens rated with an f-stop of 2.4?
There you go!
Apples Camera!
You might be surprised how many people would actually prefer iPhone over separate P&S camera. Even NEX-5N borrowed touch focal point concept from iPhone.
Seriously, for advanced cameras with large lens lineup, Sony need to have the guts to invent the very best technology first before anyone else, and keep it to themselves. They need to hire smart software people (for imaging processing out of sensor), they need to implement eye-controlled focusing system, in-sensor AF, before anyone else, given their R&D budget.
free roaming focus points have been around for ages, I have it on my Dimage 7i and thats years old.
Ok, Stevie is dead, I can give a few kudos to him, but this is over glorification of CrApple.
Makes me wanna buy an IPad 2 just to play angry birds…
Sony had touch-screen interface since 2005 (or 06?) with the T1.
Neither Apple nor Steve jobs himself invented the laser printer, It was Xerox (Gary Starkweather to be exact). The first commercial laser printer was the IBM 3800 and most of the ideas for the MAC were also ‘pinched’ from Xerox PARCs work. Personally I’m glad he wasn’t in charge at Sonys DSLR division as I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have come up with the cameras I use today. However, he was a genius at what he did and was one of the truly great innovators and businessmen, a very sad loss to the world and I wonder how Apple will progress without his influence (they didn’t do too good last time).
Now, on a more general note can we stop this talk about app stores and social media connectivity for DSLRs, its utter nonsense. If you want to play angry birds and mess around with social media sites, buy an iphone! I’d rather Sony spent its R&D cash on something useful to photographers rather than for spotty 12 year olds who cant deal with the real world. If Sony do anything more in this direction than put Wifi data transfer in a camera I stop buying!
If Apple didn’t bring personal laser printer to the mass, we would be printing our documents (including graphics & photos) on dot-matrix printers for many more years. Steve didn’t invent mp3 either, but his iPod AND iTune Store idea (at least he approved it) revolutionized the whole music industry…
They didn’t bring the Laser printer to the masses. At that point Apple products were very niche market. Xerox created the first office laser printer and the primary company that really “brought it to the masses” was Hewlett Packard.
As far as the Ipod and Itunes go, it would be a very narrow minded person who’d question Apples contribution to the world of technology. These were both works of genius although ITunes is probably the greater of the two. Many companies had digital music players but none had such a polished digital media distribution platform, IMHO probably his greatest achievement
Come on, fanboy. The Laserwriter was a stock Canon printer part with a Postscript capable controller board. Several other manufacturers made CX based printers.
Apple have never invented anything. They are good at reinventing other people’s stuff though.
Didn’t revolutionize, it was the design makes people choose iPod. Sony, Microsoft Zune, iRiver plus others made great MP3 players. Don’t forget the first iPod didn’t sell that well. The wheel design made everyone passionate with the device and the easy way to scroll your music.
Until today i still not own an iPod, iPhone or an iPad, great designs but never like the concept. I love freedom and not be close in cage, whatever device i use i can install and uninstall whatever i want without no one tell me what to do or not to do.
I prize him for the Apple Computers and for taken out Apple near bankruptcy , the day iPad will have a full Mac X OS installed then I will get one.
Apple will still make great products because they have great designers and thinkers.
Thanks Steve for the great things you done to this industry and the risks you took when everyone was saying that this was impossible or because your were crazy.
What the f wrong with you? The man isn’t buried yet and you are writing this…
He would have presented the iCam. Fully automatic, possibly even without release button but voice-controlled, stylish design, no interchangeable lenses or very restrictive mount impossible to build third-party lenses for. Price: twice as much as competition.
If Stevie was in Sonys Alpha Imaging Department…
He wouldn’t have released the A77 with the wrong firmware!
Sony you are so FAIL for this!
I have a A77 sitting on my shelf staring at me for the last 5 days!
Worst way to treat your early bird customers!
Why don’t you try resetting the camera by pressing the button combination mentioned here earlier? If I had the camera, I could live with doing that every now or then until a firmware fix is available.
My heart would sink every time the camera freezes. In anger I might throw the camera into the air having missed the shot.
I will stick to my A55 for now until Sony brings out the Firmware and hopefully they will do something about the terrible noise level in RAW.
You’re implying that the release firmware didn’t work at all…WRONG! It may not have been optimal but it certainly does work just fine. There is a lockup problem yes but that can be overcome quite simply. My 77 has been fine so far with none of the malfunctions occurring at all.
You’re implying that I am implying that the release firmware didn’t work at all… WRONG! WRONG! I merely stated that Stevie wouldn’t have released the product with firmware 1.02. Good on you! Your A77 works just fine, now be a good boy and go back to sleep.
No, you stated it was the wrong firmware read your own post! You obviously know nothing about Apple if you think that every software release they made was perfect. Go do some checking their software QA is far from perfect!
As for going to sleep, nah, I’m up and awake now kiddo!
I don’t even know why I am replying to this…
Firmware 1.02 was built for the pre-production cameras that had a different version of the Bionz processor. It wasn’t meant to be used on the production camera.
Ok here is the definition of wrong.
Wrong: In an unsuitable or undesirable manner or direction
So, therefore since it has an undesirable effect, freezing the camera at random intervals, I would classify that as wrong.
Since Sony released the firmware 1.03 one week later on all new export models, I would say 1.02 was WRONG!
So I stated it was wrong, but I never stated that it never worked. I am finding it difficult to get this across to you.
Please don’t ask me to draw you a diagram.
No please. I don’t like Apple. Just look at their iPod nano. Poor sound quality. Even my $50 Philips mp3 player is better in term of sound quality.
If they release a camera, they will release a full of features camera but just not capable of taking a good quality picture.
Cannot agree more. It will like ipod in music industry. For audio phili, you will not consider Apple.
Apple can be a good DC/iPhone camera producer, but cannot be a top quality image company
And I would like to see a NEX with android interface, with tons of photographic and video apps. That will change the game!
We will miss the visionary person Steve Jobs.
In camera industry it’s not Sony missing a person like Steve, it’s Kodak which needs new innovations!
Regards, Bernd
True, Kodak is another sad American icon. They really need some game-changing stuff to stay relevant.
That would be a Kodak moment!
I think a digital Camera by Apple would Look like this:
http://www.appcam.org
(Make camera usability easier and more intuitive)
Work the life out of little chinese factory workers and sue the pants off any other camera manafacturer…
>np>
Even Steve’s company need to purchase camera module from Sony for their products….
If you talk about consumer electronics and fancy stuff, I think Apple did a great job (to focus on user experience, instead of the products’ spec/function)
But in terms of imaging quality (the crux for photographer), you cannot trick.
You need top quality glasses for lens, fast processor, and good sensor. Those count on R&D.
You’d end up with a Cyber-shot.
iBershot?
He made the iPhone, IPhoto, Aperture.
No he didn’t, his employees did. You don’t really believe the crap about Steve Jobs having all these ideas do you? 😀
Jonathan Ive is the Apple visionary.
I’m glad somebody mentioned him. People really need to Google Apple history!
“”Looking at the camera industry which is mostly driven by Asian companies I often see a very conservative and anti-risk inclined mentality. “” conservative & anti risk mentality?????? will you stick to that statement if you consider NEX???? SLTs???? better EVFs????
btw, if Apple management releases the same EVF what Sony did, I can imagine they will publicize it saying “view finder done in correct way”.
And loyal customers will just buy it like they buy iphones and all those pads….
RIP Steve, a true legend and great visionary to lead company like Apple. He changed the way I listen to music, use computer and even my life style.
Any way if he runs Sony, we will all have Alpha Air, Alpha Pro, Power Alpha cameras…
Bad news for you Apple haters – Minolta was the camera company that probably most closely resembled Apple over the years, with Nikon being a dead ringer for IBM.
The 7000 was very Apple-like in being a camera that tied together existing technology with new tech to produce something much more than the sum of its parts.
Sony has kept that tradition alive in various ways – a good example being their promotion of the tilt screen – on almost all cameras since 2008. You can’t say they were inspired to keep it by users – many have been very disparaging about Live View or waist-level viewing – strange when it predates the invention of the 35mm camera in photography.
Except Minolta didn’t sue Nikon for copying the in-body AF system, didn’t sue Olympus for copying the in-body the stabilizer, didn’t sue everyone else for copying the TTL wireless flash system. The list goes on.
There would only a few different Sony camera models. These cameras would be even better designed and have a better user interface and, of course, they would cost considerably more than somewhat equivalent Canon or Nikon models – but would scream buy me!
The NEX might be something between one of the current NEX models and a Leica M9 – and it would probably have some exquisite pancake lenses.
He would make it look pretty have a nice smooth interface and then sue every other camera manufacturer and say he invented the camera… In all seriousness poor guy and RIP but strongly disagree with he’s decision to start suing any one that was a threat to he’s bottom line… end of the day they run a VERY high profit product set and put HUGE pressure on other companies/component manufacturers with extreme conditions and in my eye unethical practices but then again then are basically a marketing company with a GREAT image and people like that so he’s a very successful man but not my cup of tea ethically.
NeXT Computers. Jobs hype, ate up investment capital, the company crashed and burned and put people out of work.
It’s a whole different world when you have professional managers supporting you, and you get to take the credit.
Exactly! It also makes a huge difference when you have a fan-base that will buy anything with the Apple logo on it.
Apple could make a great camera. Photographing is as much about looking at your photos, working on them and sharing them, as it is taking them.
All of that should be possible to do on the camera, with a big gorgous hi-resolution touch screen. Thus avoiding the hassle of transferring pictures to your computer.
I think you are right.
Probably Jobs would not change much during the capturing phase, but instead during the storage, re-elaboration and condivision/networking phases of the picture making (which are also part of taking pics, after all)
A community of developer dedicated in creating camera applications. Sell or even distribute it for free!
THE NEX user interface already tries to make it simple for everyday ‘NO How?’
It is the ‘Know how’ group bitching for its simplified design.
If Jobs was in photography business, a lot of people would eventually give up all the IQ discussions, go out and take pictures and HAVE FUN DOING IT.
Also don’t forget that all the Hipstamagic, Instagram etc. are basicly modern day Polaroids(capture the moment and share it). iPhone surely played its part in that.
He would have made a proprietary RAW format that could only be edited using the manufacturer’s software and it would run sluggish and be a memory hog if used on windows.
If Jobs… then Canon and Nikon would be nearly bankrupt within a year. They would be unable to release any new cameras anywhere because they were tied up in knots (patent lawsuits – despite lots of prior art, common sense etc etc)
Sony cameras would only work with iOS. They would only use AppleRAW – and the format would be a closely guarded secret that only Apple products could use. You could only upload pictures using iTunes.
The cameras would only come in cheap semi-transulcent white plastic, although there would be promises of more discrete versions that would come a year later.
Pictures would be fuzzy – unless you held the camera in a specific way. Sony/Jobs would deny there was a problem but provide free tripods.
Most features would not be included in the camera until at least 2 versions from now/whenever the rest of the competitors had innovated them, and then they would be hailed as amazing new revolutions.
The camera (only one of course) would cost a fortune, but be very cheap to manufacture despite which it would be so common that none of us would want one.
I for one am very glad that Jobs was not in charge of Sony.
What Jobs did best was say no. I think too many features is really a pain on modern cameras. At the pro and advanced amateur level all you really need is the PASM modes, maybe an Auto mode with auto ISO. Look at the Alpha 77 , 200+ pages of features in it’s manual, but they leave manual audio levels off the video recording?? I would give up a lot of the wiz bang features for manual audio control.
I do not know what an Apple DSLR would look like but it would nice to see what Apple’s software engineers, designers and a CEO who knows how to say no would come up with.
This is not to say Apple has not incorporated some useless features in its products, but generally there are fewer than others.
If Steve Jobs did supervise the NEX creation, it would be dumbed down to the maximum, with no removable battery.
I think we can safely say from the early iPhone models, that imaging quality was not a priority. I really don’t think Steve Jobs would have been interested in cameras aimed at enthusiasts. He’d be more suited to the consumer part of the Sony business. After all, Sony invented mobile music with the Walkman.
We might also find that Steve Jobs would have favoured a “walled-garden” approach. No doubt their would be apps on cameras and much else, but all that sharing would be carefully engineered to fit in an Apple environment.
I miss Steve Jobs forever.
Well, until you die…
f*ck me, this is terrible. Cant you think of anything better as a ‘news’ story?
I feel embarrassed.
Then shut the f*ck up and go play on your Android.
COME ON!!!! We all need to ride the bandwagon!
People hated him when he was alive, they all love him now that he is dead!
Just like how people didn’t give a shit about Princess Diana when she was alive! Ditto to MJ as well.
Bad news is Good news for the media, lets just all ride along and watch them rape him before he is even buried.
One thing for sure, he would ridiculously patent everything related to the world of camera, be it face detection, touch screen focus point, two-step shutter button and so forth and then he’d sue all of his compettitor out of the business, one by one.
Such is the way of a patent troll.
It’s ironic that Apple are held up as an example of innovation when they actually stifle growth through the legal system.
Rest in peace, Steve. It’s allways sad when people die too young.
An apple Camera would be able to do allmost everything except doing photos.
Like an iPhone, which is a great lifestyle tool with problems in the primary aim of a cell phone, phoning…
And you would need this stupid I-tunes to receive files from your camera…
He wouldn’t want to be chief of sony,nhe would be chief of leica, because they look much more appleish.
Sony fanboys are the worst, and the responses in this thread proves that. You wouldn’t know innovation and greatness if it hit you in the head. RIP Steve.
You wouldn’t even know innovation if the A77 was invented by Sony and sitting right in front of your face….
Bill- looking through this thread your obsessive hatred of Jobs is obvious. Seriously, get a life and stop trolling.
I don’t know the guy, how can I hate him?
It’s a pity he died, it’s sad if anyone dies. We shouldn’t turn his death into some sort of over glorified parade. Show some respect you Sony Fan Boy!
He would have made every camera thinner and faster than the last and make them available in white. Interchangable lens cameras would have to be changed by a Sony service and repair specialist. If you try to do it yourself your warranty would be void.
He was CEO of Apple Computer. Why would he ever want to be Chief of a company’s camera division?
Seriously.
Because everything Steve touches turns to gold!
Hell, even his shit redefines everything!
Actually he admired Sony. -> http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/111102/being-steve-jobs-boss?mod=career-leadership
He will be fired like he got fired from Apple, because he is NOT a normal gullible manager.
If he managed to get those “Jobs firers” fired or away from his back, then I think there would be some rather interesting “Card type” cameras. As for DSLRs, I have absolutely no idea how that would end up…