When is Apple going to buy one of these struggling camera makers? They could pick up Olympus for nothing and ship a camera with a real CPU in it, and maybe even software that doesn't make you cry.
Unfortunately, it is not a growing market segment. [1] Sales are down 54% YoY in 2020 (and were well in decline before COVID). [2]
Samsung used to have their own line of discrete cameras, with quite a unique feature set for their time, but these were discontinued in 2015. [3]
15 million units a year is not a large enough market for any new entrant to bother investing the R&D. They would then have to license an existing lens mount or design their own, and photographers with thousands of dollars in lenses are very conservative about moving to a new system. Third party lens makers are also slow to redesign their products to support a new system.
[1] https://www.statista.com/chart/5782/digital-camera-shipments...
[2] https://petapixel.com/2020/11/06/camera-sales-in-2020-have-p...
I picked up a Sony this year, and I'm very pleased with the quality of the photos and video I'm able to achieve.
The software is a constant, grating annoyance. It feels like being transported 15 years into the past, and (this one is Apple's fault), I have to pick my video format carefully if I want to import onto my iPad, which generally, I do.
Everything, from the menu, to importing, remote control, all of it: it just doesn't work great, the ergonomics are terrible.
Great camera though. Just a terrible computer.
I have a sony camera and I find the UI and physical interface to be pretty good. What its lacking for me is some of the more advanced features like video stabilization (on their lower models) 4k 60 (also on their >$2000 models) and long exposure photos with shake reduction so you can take it from your hands.
i say when pigs fly. (sadly.)
Doing something analogous with cameras isn't an impossibility. It's not even going to cannibalize iPhone sales; the opposite if anything, although I'd imagine most people who are serious about shooting video on their phone have a 12 Pro in their pocket already.
But mostly, it would give an obvious upgrade path to get into cinema-quality and real lenses, for customers who cut their teeth on what the iPhone has to offer.
It's a natural fit for Apple, although I think I understand why they haven't: it's hard for that company to get out of bed for less than a million units sold, of anything.