When Does A Camera Become A Mobile?

I missed this story breaking during the week and immediately started to thinking along the “Is it a bird? Is it a plane?” line of things….

Samsung have gone and announced a 10 megapixel camera phone which was to be launched at the CeBIT last week. Now, not only does that phone boast a 10 megapixel camera element, but it features 3x optical zoom, 5x digital zoom and a 1/2,000 shutter speed. Not only that, but it boasts a 2″, 16.1m colour TFT LCD.

Now, when it comes to photography, I shoot a Nikon D70. Friends of mine in the compact digital range shoot anywhere between 3.2 and 6 megapixels. So why, in the name of God, would you want a mobile phone that boasts a 10 megapixel camera? Is there really that much of a need for this kind of technology on the streets? It seems to me like they’re turning cameras into mobile phones rather than the other way around…