Camera is now optional for Windows Phone.

In tech terrain, some changes are made with hushed tones. One such is the changes that were made to the Windows Phone hardware requirements. In late September, Microsoft conveniently put camera into the ‘optional hardware’ category. The optional hardware section also includes gyro and compass. The standard set of features are inclusive of common hardware controls and buttons, capacitive 4-point multi-touch screen, 256MB or above RAM, 4GB or more flash storage, A-GPS and accelerometer among others.

Microsoft, with this move supposedly points at its efforts to reach a wider affordable market segment. This is something almost all manufacturers have been trying to achieve (remember the cheaper iPhone 4 making rounds). We’ve seen these changes being implemented in the most recent HTC Radar, which comes minus the gyro and compass.However, cameras have emerged as a standard feature (no matter the pixels or quality), in the hordes of existing affordable handsets. So, we'd expect Microsoft to fit in a decent sensor, rather than cutting it out completely. Pocketnow states that this move could prove to be effective for the corporate users who can’t clutch onto a camera-enabled phone and it’s probably this market segment that WP7 plans to target.

Will downgrading its hardware spec requirements help Microsoft reach a wider audience? Do let us know in the comments section below.