Last call for the Polaroid SC1630 Smart Camera

The Polaroid SC1630 Android camera was announced earlier this year but as yet, hasn’t been released. One can only assume it’s become a victim of the big changes at Polaroid and unless we get an update at IFA next week we can probably assume that it’s not going to happen, at least in its current form. Even if it does come to market, a lot of the wind will be taken out of its sails by the Nikon S800C smart camera and other devices we’re expecting to see at IFA.

The Polaroid SC1630 is a mobile smart camera. By that I mean it’s got a smart OS and that its connectivity is mobile-capable. i.e. 3G is provided, something that the Nikon S800C doesn’t have. It puts it in close competition with high-end smartphones but with one important difference – optical zoom. Only the Aigo A8 — / Altek Leo come close. Very close. In fact the truth is that the Polaroid camera is in fact based on the same Aigo / Altek products. (Source and video.)

I remember Aigo from the UMPC era. They built a quite impressive MID running Linux but getting hold of it turned into a nightmare. Gigabyte and a few European carriers picked it up but it was a short lived product. Maybe it’s not Polaroid’s fault that the SC1630 isn’t in the market yet; Maybe it’s an issue with Aigo. It appears that versions of this are available in parts of Asia, but not in the English speaking parts of the world. Anyone seen it on sale?

Whatever the issue is. The result is the same. Unless we get an update on the Polaroid product in the next few weeks we, and everyone else that has an interested in smart cameras are going to be looking elsewhere.

I’ve got someone attending IFA next week for me (I can’t attend personally this year) so I’ll make sure they have the Polaroid SC1630 high on their list, just underneath Samsung!