Samsung's S Orb Panoramic Camera Feature: Worth Waiting For or Just Late to the Party?

When the Samsung Galaxy S4 launched several weeks ago, the thing that stood out the most at the event was the undeniable fact that Samsung has gone mobile app crazy – adding its own collection of what it refers to as “S Apps” to the S4’s arsenal of features. Whether misguided or a very smart move, the bottom line is that S Apps are here to stay, and if you want a new Samsung mobile device – or at least devices that fall within the higher end of the mobile device spectrum – then you’ll need to learn to live with S Apps residing on your new device(s).

Interestingly, one of the features that did not make the final cut on the S4 when it launched was Samsung’s “S Orb” – a new camera app/feature that allows a user to take numerous photos that S Orb will then stitch together into a panoramic photo.

S Orb will be also able to deliver full 360-degree panoramic photos.

It is similar in concept to Microsoft Photosynth, which works in a similar way to delivering 360-degree panoramic photos. We ourselves have put Photosynth to good use on our iPhones and iPads (Photosynth also allows users to store panoramic photos. S Orb is also similar to – or derived from Photo Sphere, which shipped with Android 4.2 on Google Nexus smartphones back in October 2012.)

Needless to say perhaps, Photosynth is available for Windows Phone devices.

Samsung is quite intimate with Photo Sphere. It’s also safe to say S Orb will likely be similar in how it functions, though the S4 camera, equipped as it is with a 13 megapixel sensor, will no doubt do a much sweeter job overall than the camera on the Nexus.

Below is a video that shows Photo Sphere in action.

LG, meanwhile, has introduced the first version of Photo Sphere that is not a Nexus device. The company’s new flagship Optimus G Pro comes equipped with what LG calls VR Panorama. Between Photo Sphere, Photosynth and VR Panorama, we already have capable technology in the field. Will S Orb, when it finally hits, prove to be exciting or will it instead merely appear to make Samsung late to the party? Below is an LG video showing off VR Panorama. 

Note that it incorporates a dig at Apple’s own panoramic photo feature.

Even more interesting to us: it turns out that S Orb will not only not be available on the S4 when the S4 hits the stores in a couple of weeks, but it now appears the S4 will not even be  the first device where S Orb will be introduced. That honor is most likely going to go to Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Note 3 (or Note III). Further, it will require a big upgrade to what is currently known as Android Key Lime Pie, a.k.a. the “rumored” Android 5.0 – assuming of course that Google opts to retain its previous Android numbering conventions.

Whether or not the Galaxy Note 3 will ship with Android key Lime Pie is unknown at this time. It may very well ship with an Android 4.2 version. This means of course that users will need to upgrade to get S Orb functionality. Android users are almost notorious for not upgrading to the latest versions of Android when updates are available. Unless you’re one of those “geek Android” types, most users have been content to stick with whatever versions their mobile devices came with.

Perhaps Samsung hopes S Orb will serve as an added incentive for users to upgrade their devices when Android Key Lime Pie becomes available.

The desire to get users to upgrade is more of a marketing issue than anything else. The more users that upgrade, the better it’ll be for Samsung to be able to claim that most of its users run the latest and greatest. Currently, companies such as Apple point out that most Android users run old versions that lack the latest functionality, while noting that as many as zero percent of Apple users are always up to date on the latest versions of iOS.

That said, S Orb will certainly lend itself to a great many marketing and advertising opportunities, and now that Samsung has learned that marketing dollars are worth much more than their weight in gold, we can expect Samsung’s marketing teams to deliver a massive marketing pitch when S Orb finally launches. If users don’t upgrade en masse at that point, nothing will make them do so.

The Galaxy S III, S4, and Note 2 will all be upgradable to Android key Lime Pie, so that marketing blitz we are anticipating will likely be a monster campaign.

Whether the campaign will deliver monster results is a whole other thing. We'll see.

If you happen to be interested in learning more about Photosynth, its website is well worth the visit.