Photography Life:

If Apple shows that the iPhone is good enough to capture beautiful images through those massive billboard-size “Shot on iPhone” campaigns, why wouldn’t people believe? Such powerful marketing works and we know it does, because the world has already purchased a billion of those iPhones and the iPhone constantly dominates top photography charts in terms of the most used camera capture tool.

So camera manufacturers now have a tough dilemma – unless the world is educated about things like sensor size and optics, they will continue to lose out in selling their lower-end offerings to that same crowd.

To answer the question in the headline – hell yes. Especially the point and shoot segment. As long as smartphones continue to offer not only “good enough” images but, with the latest crop including the iPhone, offering “really good” images, the vast majority of people will not look to buy another camera of any description. The point and shoot market, except for some very niche needs (underwater and adventure, for example), is well on the way to dying off. The DSLR market will continue to shrink but won’t disappear entirely as long as there is a significant (but no longer a majority) of buyers who want even better images or more creativity or more lens options.

As a photographer, I’m excited about what the iPhone 7 brings if only because it will push other manufacturers to do more with less. Of course, there may (will?) be a tipping point where the market is unsustainable for the Nikons and Canons of the world. I hope that day never comes though.