I’ll be honest here.  Through contacts of mine I knew that Apple was going to release an iPod Touch with a camera in it.  So I made the mistake of writing this post in advance.  Now the event has happened and this post requires some edits.

Why?  Because the camera sucks.  0.7 megapixels at 960x720 to be specific.  That stinks. 

But it’s a beginning.  A first step to the iPod Touch starting a revolution in Digital Cameras in the same way it’s doing with gaming now (Apple claims the iPod Touch ”outsells Nintendo and Sony portable game players combined” though I haven’t had time to look into those numbers).  

Because There's never been a fully programmable camera (much less a camcorder). One where the individual developer could write programs that actually incorporate the camera into applications and Web Sites.  Imagine being able to hand your Grandma an iPod Touch that allows her to upload photos to the web without touching a computer. 

This is big.

Of course there was already a camera on the iPhone but saying that misses the point.  The point here is how cheap the iPod Touch is as a solution.  It's bringing the software revolution that started on the PC to the Digital Camera with no contract required. 

Let me give you an example that demonstrates the impact of this…

A while back I had a consulting job with a construction company.  They had 37 foreman positions that monitored various projects and they wanted a way for those foreman to take onsite pictures, annotate them and then get them to the corporate office in real-time. Back then there was no easy way to do it.  We eventually used a netbook solution but it was inconvenient to carry around and required the company maintain a bunch of netbooks (viruses, malware, etc...). 

With the new iPod Touch we could create the same solution but it would fit easily in the pocket and would require no administration.  Not to mention being over $100k cheaper than buying each employee an iPhone ($118,511 to get each person an iPhone and pay for the contract vs $8,473 to get each person an iPod Touch).

See the point now?

So while the poor quality of the iPod Touch’s camera is disappointing I’m still excited.  I can’t imagine Apple leaving the camera untouched in the next generation.  Meaning 1 year from now we’ll be looking at an iPod Touch with a 5 megapixel camera and a boat load of applications to enhance it.  When that day comes Digital Cameras might just find themselves obsolete.