Nice piece of writing but one contradiction I must point out: you say, (the camera makers) "must be deeply convinced that the complexity of the feature set (which certainly does appeal to a lot of us) is an indivisible part of how they add value to their product." IF it certainly appeals to a lot of us, then what are said camera makers doing wrong? You must mean that it *doesn't* appeal to a lot of us, hence the appeal of the camera phone? Otherwise, the camera makes are giving a lot of people exactly what they want, no? [No, I said what I mean. I'm talking about a camera for my 74-year-old aunt. I'm talking about having a couple of choices in a field of hundreds of products. I'm not talking about all cameras and I'm not talking about cameras for enthusiasts. --Mike]