Did you hear about the HTC One’s fancy new “UltraPixel Camera”? HTC touts the camera as an end to the “megapixel wars.” UltraPixels! Revolution! And, yes, the technology sounds very promising, but, uh, wait a second, what is an UltraPixel anyway? UltraPixel is a made up marketing word… HTC’s new phone only has a 4-megapixel camera, and that could lead people to think it’s inferior to the (roughly) 8-megapixel cameras on competing phones like the Nokia Lumia 920 and iPhone 5. Indeed, huge megapixels counts have long been used to trick customers into thinking that one camera is more sophisticated than another. The solution? Rewrite the language? Or maybe just confuse people more with another meaningless term. …meant to highlight that the HTC One’s camera sensor has “big pixels”… HTC really wants you to know that its megapixels are BIGGER than the megapixels on competing cameras.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.