Computational photography is next smartphone frontier: Jo Harlow

Nokia, the once-global leader in handsets, is attempting a daring comeback with its range of Lumia smartphones. Nokia is betting on imaging and software experiences to revive its fortunes. Jo Harlow, executive vice-president of Nokia’s smartphone business, tells Rajat Agarwal about the challenges the company plans to overcome with its upcoming Lumia smartphones.

Is having great imaging capabilities a necessity to cater to a niche when most users are happy with decent photography and more apps?
One of the key things is awareness and getting into the consideration set for people looking to buy a flagship smartphone. Of course, marketing plays a big role in that but then it comes down to retail. We have to communicate on a couple of key messages — great design, and be single-minded on delivering the imaging message and why it is better than everyone else.

I don’t think imaging is a niche segment of users but is a very wide segment — everyone wants to click great pictures. We all have a lot of apps on our phones but we don’t use a lot of apps. We use those apps that give a nice experience and that’s what we are focusing on with the Lumia smartphones. We now have 145,000 apps and the list is growing. We have opened the imaging APIs for developers to incorporate some of those features in their apps.

What’s the next big thing in smartphone photography?
In the Lumia 925, we have added a sixth lens in the camera that allows us to deliver even clearer and sharper images in low light but it also delivers real clear, bright and sharp images in bright light. So regardless of the conditions, it would take great pictures. If you look at where imaging is going, computational imaging is an area of exploration.

Being able to capture even more data -- data you cannot even see with the human eye that you can only see by actually going back to the picture and being able to do things with them. I think that is a key challenge to bring to a smartphone because computational imaging or computational photography requires computational power. That was one of the limitations in bringing that kind of experiences on a smartphone. Changes in the processing capabilities of smartphones opens it up as an area of exploration.

(Nokia has invested in Pelican Imaging, which offers technology to enable users to click a photo first and then change the point of focus later. This light-field camera technology was first demonstrated by Lytro but Pelican Imaging brings it to slimmer camera modules that can be fitted into smartphones.)

What are you specifically doing with Lumia smartphones in India?
One of the things that we have done with an eye on India is to build out the portfolio and to have flagship devices that create aspiration but to really pay off that aspiration is to have lower end devices. The Lumia 520 is a great example of that. We will continue to push the boundaries of how low we can take Lumia. That’s one thing. Then, of course, there are things that are currently missing. Dual-SIM is an important one and to be really successful in the Indian market. And that’s something on our radar to bring to the portfolio.

What about the market reception of Lumia smartphones in India?
What we know is that the satisfaction with Lumia devices is quite high. That once people begin to use them that they really love the user experience and the personalisation. The challenge is to simply widen the number of people who are aware of Lumia. That’s why  a big part of that is marketing but also big part of it is retail.

Agarwal is the executive editor of www.bgr.in, the technology news portal of India.com
He tweets @rajatagr