Higher MP = more noise, bigger file sizes, slower transfers, slower editing, wasted storage, and a nice bullet point for an ad
I’ll take improved optics and electronics over megapixels any day. And I do NOT want to be storing 8MP images for no reason. (5MP is already huge and detailed—far bigger than most people view photos, or need for the sake of printing even.)
Totally agree. And, just to highlight, the file size issues with little quality benefit have a lot to do with sensor size, as Jobs highlighted. You briefly mention more noise, but I don't think a lot of people realize how big a deal this is because they are wowed by the MegaPixel Myth.
When sensors are crammed on the chip, their ability to detect light cleanly without creating noise / artifacts in the image is greatly reduced. You can end up with a much worse image than if you had a lower pixel count. What's the point of some greater detail, when you can't see it because of the extra color artifacts and it starts to feel like you are looking at a 3D image without the 3D glasses (when you see red and blue outlines around everything).
Once you get to about 5MP on a compact camera, then going up from there is pretty pointless. I always read this about compact cameras -- how much more true would this be of mobile phones where the chip is even smaller?
On an SLR, the chip is much larger, and on the high-ends it is about the same size as the 35mm film frame would be on an analog camera. That is one of the significant advantages of an SLR, even if you don't use all the features.
And I think that the manufacturer of the camera chip makes a difference too... who is making the chips for some of these multi-MP cameras in other mobile phones? I might trust Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Minolta, let's say, but not HP or some company like that. There is color processing and all kinds of technologies at work in the chip/chipset. Some manufacturers simply do it better than others and have much more relevant experience.
And in a non-camera context (though Apple does have some camera experience of its own), ColorSync has always rivaled Adobe color processing, and Apple excels at rendering pixels on screen (I mean, how do you even know if you are taking a good shot if the screen is crappy); so all the way around, I would put Apple way ahead of other phone makers regardless of the specs on the spec sheet.