What Does The Future Hold For HTC?

The HTC One M8 is an upgrade to the HTC One (M7), arguably, the world’s best smartphone.

While we wait to get our hands on the HTC One M8, we spent some time catching up on what Symon Whitehorn, HTC’s Imaging Specialist, has to say about the future of HTC cellphone cameras. Here are the highlights. 

After UltraPixels, Zoe & Duo Camera, what’s next for HTC cellphone cameras?

UltraPixels to Double
According to Symon, 8MP is the ballpark that HTC will be happy to maintain in the future, as long as they can maintain the large pixels seen in the HTC One.

HTC is 4K Ready
But you won’t be seeing it anytime soon. Not until 4k really fits into everyday life.

Optical Zoom is Months Away
Within 12–18 months, we can expect Optical Zoom from an HTC smartphone. “Optical zooming in a smartphone is not too far off at all for HTC. I can’t give too much away, but within 12–18 months we’ll see huge advances in phone optics. That’s why we don’t necessarily believe in doing a high-resolution, photo enlarging solution.”

Looks like the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom will be getting some competition, finally.

#Selfies?
In another bid to give its primary competitor, Samsung, a run for their money, HTC is turning its attention towards the #Selfie market. Samsung has been behind two of the biggest selfie gimmicks—the Oscars and Obama—and has a selfie camera in their lineup as well. 

Symon says, “We’re not matching the rear camera on the front side, but the front camera is tuned to help you give the best selfies. It’s no longer the afterthought camera that it’s been for so long. We can also tune the camera with an ultra-wide lens and digital corrections.”

Taking on the DSLR
Symon is confident about the HTC’s ability to take on a compact camera. Are they now looking to usurp the DSLR market too?

“Two years ago I would have said that phones will never replace DSLRs. Now I’m not so sure. I think there’ll always be a role for a dedicated camera, like for sports etc., but I think you’ll see the gap closing. Those cameras will become more specialised out of necessity–they can’t match the brain power that we can put into a phone.”

“What will happen is that we’ll take over more and more of those daily roles, and make it harder to justify taking out a big camera. That’s already happened with the compact camera market. I think we’re looking at about 18 months to two years until that lens barrier begins breaking down and it becomes much harder to justify buying a dedicated camera outside of specialist or nostalgia reasons.”

You can read his full interview here