jolyonralph said:
This is necessary.
Current pairing systems from cellphones to cameras are diabolical. Complex to set up, unreliable (using the camera as a wifi hotspot doesn't work if your phone is paired already to a hotel wifi network, for example). Even more of a pain on the iPhone than android because no NFC pairing.
Problems are though:
a) screen isn't big enough to run apps. And I really can't see many of us excited by the idea of removing physical controls and relying on touch controls on a larger back screen.
b) Power drain.
c) It'd need to run android (no other practical way) to be able to access all the necessary apps (instragram, facebook, etc). Which is fine, except the startup time from powerup on Android is diabolical.
So you'd need to have the current bare-bones Canon OS running normal camera things, and to load in Android on top of that when you want to use connectivity and apps. Which would be slow to do.
d) Power drain.
e) And, did I mention, the power drain?
Much of this would be addressed by running a locked-down embedded OS, in the manner of a smart TV, instead of the horribad idea of cramming a whole Android phone into the camera, which would be terrible. It doesn't need to play Angry Birds, it doesn't need to show Netflix, and it doesn't need to have your banking app.
An embedded OS, with embedded apps (like the Netflix and YouTube apps on a smart TV) that would mostly be about sharing the pics and connecting to sister apps on iOS and Android, would be much better. They'd be updated via firmware, not an app store, it wouldn't have to run arbitrary software, and it would be much less vulnerable to malware. It would also suffer less power drain, since it doesn't need the horsepower to run all the modern smartphone apps.
Now maybe it still doesn't need to happen at all, but there are better ways than cramming a whole phone in there.