Maybe you're wondering why I posted a press release about a camera phone sensor. It's not so you can start planning for your next camera phone purchase. It's because camera phones are driving digital imaging sensor technology right now. Currently, there's a lot more profit in camera phones than compact digital cameras. Everyone owns a camera phone - you get them for free when you get a new cellular phone plan. And since camera phones require much smaller sensors, a lot of R&D money is being put into making smaller sensors.

Even if it isn't readily apparent, camera phone sensor technology will eventually trickle up, into compact digital cameras, and even digital SLRs. Smaller sensors and pixels generally mean more noise and other digital artifacting. But with so much money available making camera phone components, sensor manufacturers are doing really impressive work with much smaller pixels.

Do you want a camera phone sensor in your next digital camera? Probably not. But the technology that they've developed to make a 1.3-megapixel camera phone CMOS sensor will likely make a future 8-megapixel compact camera have better image quality and fit in your pocket better.