As consumers gape at the ever-increasing large-screen HD products being touted this holiday season, at least one cellphone maker thinks there will be a market for HD of the far, far smaller variety.
Such technology for both tiny viewing and recording is still a few years away, according to Nokia Chief Technology Officer Tero Ojanpera, but he told Reuters last week that users will appreciate HD image quality on screens only a fraction the size of what they’re getting used to in the family room or office.
Still-picture cameras on phones are hardly new—and moving images can be captured (in relatively short bursts) with varying degrees of quality on higher-end units. Nokia’s highest quality phone ‘camcorder’ currently is its model N95, part of its N series. While the cell maker says the N95’s video quality comes closer to approaching television images, it still has quite a way to go to approach HD quality.
Yet as with today’s cell-camera, playback of future HD fare will not be restricted to the phone’s miniscule screen. Such video would be transferable to larger viewing venues, namely computer monitors and TV sets. Of course, how well future cell-cam images will stand up to zooming out on more practical viewing platforms is another big part of the technical equation.
