Apple has been recently granted a patent for wearable camera. Could this mean it would release its own shooter?
According to Patently Apple, the Cupertino firm has been granted over 30 patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office recently. It has been reported that one of these was a patent for a flexible phone, drawing attention and speculations that a flexible iPhone 7 device is already on the way. Another patent that was granted was for a new camera system. Based on the details provided by Patently Apple, this particular patent was filed in 2012 and that some of its details came from Kodak which Apple acquired in late 2013. The patent indicates that the new camera could be used in various outdoor activities such as biking, scuba diving, among others.
"Specifically, the patent notes that the new camera system could be secured to various objects, such as a bike helmet or scuba mask, or mounted to the handlebars of a motorcycle or the front of a surfboard. The new camera system also notes that an iPhone (smartphone) could be used under water to take pictures and record sounds in a water environment," Patently Apple says.
Also, it has been discussed in the report that the new product will also be remote control-capable. In summary, the new digital camera system will have two essential elements -- an image capture module and a remote control module. "In many situations, these digital capture devices are held by the user, who uses the color display to compose the images as they are captured. In some situations, the digital capture device is mounted on a tripod or another type of camera mounting device, so that it does not need to be held by the user. In some situations, the digital capture device is controlled using a remote control, in order to initiate and terminate the capture of images," Patently Apple adds. A copy of Apple's patent on the digital camera system can be found here.
With all these reports, speculations are mounting that Apple is now planning on exploring the action camera market. Daily Mail notes that Apple indeed plans to produce its own camera, then it would really be disadvantageous to existing camera products such as GoPro and Polaroid's Cube and could definitely hurt these companies' profits.
However, Alex Gauna, a JMP Securities analyst, says in the Daily Mail report that a patent for a wearable camera does not necessarily mean that Apple is indeed exploring the camera market. "It does not seem to me that launching an action camera accessory is the most logical product extension for Apple to pursue right now," Gauna was quoted as saying in the report.
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter meanwhile says that Apple's rumored wearable camera will indeed cause some impacts on GoPro and other camera makers. GoPro has not yet issued a comment on the report while Apple has also not yet confirmed the rumors.