很久以前我們曾為大家介紹過 Pelican Imaging 的原型陣列相機，這種相機所採用的技術非常特別，它能合併許多小顆鏡頭模擬出一顆大顆鏡頭的拍攝效果（就好像昆蟲的複眼一樣），其好處是可以縮小相機的體積，讓手機變得更為輕薄。而現在根據 Bloomberg 的報導來看，在手機拍照領域頗有建樹的 Nokia 已經決定對這家公司進行投資了。按照 Nokia 投資部門的說法，自 2008 年起他們就已經開始關注 Pelican，長久以來一直有對其投資的計畫，來自 Nokia Growth Partners 的 Bo Ilsoe 更是表示 Pelican 的技術已經「處在了商用的臨界點（on the cusp of being commercialized）」，不知道使用 4,100 萬畫素 PureView 技術、具備防手震功能、可以拍出全光鏡效果照片的 Lumia 手機何時才會到來呢？

Nokia Growth Partners, the venture- capital arm of Nokia (NOK1V) Oyj, plans to invest in California startup Pelican Imaging as the phonemaker seeks to win back customers from Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Android devices with cameras that give greater depth and ease of splicing together images.
The Pelican investment is part of a push to differentiate Nokia as it tries to stimulate demand in its Lumia smartphones, which run Microsoft Corp.’s Windows software, to reverse falling sales and recover market share.
Lumia sales rose to 5.6 million in the first quarter, up from 4.4 million in the previous three months. Still, Apple and Android-based devices control more than 90 percent of the smartphone market to Espoo, Finland-based Nokia’s 3 percent, according to researcher Strategy Analytics. Imaging quality is one of the top three reasons to buy or return a phone, and as Nokia phones are known for their cameras, it’s seen as a good leverage point, according to Nokia Growth Partners.
Array cameras, which use multiple optics and mesh the data into one image, “are on the cusp of being commercialized and Pelican does software for that,” Bo Ilsoe, a partner at Nokia Growth Partners, said yesterday in a phone interview from California. “It’s very complicated to do this algorithmically and Pelican is one of the companies that has mastered this technology.”
Nokia Growth Partners has been tracking Mountain View-based Pelican since soon after its founding in 2008, Ilsoe said. Pelican also counts Globespan Capital Partners, Granite Ventures, InterWest Partners and IQT among its private-equity investors, according to its website.
Image Investments
Nokia, which bought Lund, Sweden-based imaging-software maker Scalado last July, released the 41-megapixel 808 PureView last year and is incorporating the technology in smartphones including the flagship Lumia 920. Nokia Growth Partners has also invested in Menlo Park, California-based image-sensing technology company InVisage Technologies Inc. and micro-optics maker Heptagon, headquartered in Singapore, to bolster its capabilities.
Nokia shares, which have fallen more than 80 percent since the iPhone was introduced in 2007, were unchanged at 2.53 euros at 1:48 p.m. in Helsinki trading after climbing as much as 1.6 percent today. The shares have dropped 14 percent this year.
Nokia Growth Partners has around $600 million under management. It’s made two other investments from its latest $250 million fund. Typical investments are between $4 million to $7 million and are usually capped at about $15 million. It expects to invest in as many as six other companies this year, Ilsoe said.
“Over the next three to five years, mobile enterprise and advertising will be areas we’ll continue to invest around,” he said. “We build a portfolio and a better in-depth understanding of ecosystems by having this approach.”