An executive at Nokia predicts that in a few years mobile phones will have the ability to shoot video in HD. Cellphones with cameras are being used as camcorders but the video quality isn’t good. Nokia launched the N95 this year and the handset has the ability to shoot video with television quality. But in a few years those home movies may be shot in HD with yours mobile phone.
“It’s coming. Technically, we are a couple of years away,” Nokia’s Chief Technology Officer Tero Ojanpera told Reuters in an interview. “It’s still a few years away.”
Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight, said phone vendors have several technical challenges ahead of them — video weighs on the battery life of power-hungry phones and increasing video quality affects the quality of the still camera.
“Video technology is there, but it has not reached huge momentum,” said Wood.
Analyst Alan Brown of research firm Gartner said he estimated 8-10 percent of cellphones might have HD video capability by 2010 or 2011. “I can’t see it getting much bigger by then,” he said.