[UPDATE]CES 2012: Polaroid Reveals New Camera/Phone with Android Market Access

It is the second day of the 2012 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show, meaning that companies like Polaroid are hard at work revealing their products, such as the SC1630 Smart Camera.

By now, users can easily guess what it means when the word “Smart” precedes the name of a product or product type.

Basically, a “Smart” gadget can act independently, to some extent, in areas that are beyond those considered “common” for its kind.

As such, a Smart camera is a camera that can do other things besides shoot photos and record videos.

The most common asset of smart gadgets is the network and/or Internet connectivity.

The Polaroid SC1630 Smart Camera has just been revealed at CES 2012 and, sure enough, it boasts Wi-Fi support, plus the ability to directly upload photos to social networking sites.

The functionality is a fine bonus for a product equipped with a 16-megapixel image sensor, 3x optical zoom and a 36-108mm lens.

“Polaroid has helped the world bring stories to life through photographs for the past 75 years,” says Scott W. Hardy, President, Polaroid.

“The newest member of the Polaroid family, the Polaroid SC1630 Smart Camera unites the beauty of high-end digital images with powerful Android connectivity features. The result is an instant experience of click, capture and share that enables social networks to see and experience the moment as if they were there.”

Design-wise, Polaroid's new camera measures 3.2 inches in diagonal and looks more or less like a smartphone, when viewed from the back.

Also, due to the Android platform, it is possible to Access the Android Market, this being another thing the item has in common with phones.

What's more, the press release makes a point of mentioning that the touchscreen and software can be used for image editing and tagging before or after uploading.

Finally, Polaroid tossed in automatic face and smile detection, plus automatic sorting by date, location (even longitude / latitude coordinates can be added to photos) and people.

Alas, no pricing or availability information exists at this time.

UPDATE: Apparently, this is more of a phone-camera hybrid than we originally thought. There might even be carrier suport later down the line.