[dghlsakjg]

The article also explains that retailers have had customers ask for this, which is why Nikon is trialing selling this through those channels instead of direct, as usual.

You don't really have to market something like this. There is a VERY small subset of users that NEED this feature, and they will seek it out. The kind of user that wants this is not as price sensitive as a consumer. A few hundred extra dollars doesn't matter to an organization that needs this for an RF sensitive scientific environment, or a secure facility.

See also: iPhones with cameras removed. You've likely never heard of them and they are not marketed at all, but if you are one of the few that need one, you know they exist, and the price premium doesn't matter. $1400 for a used 2020 iPhone SE, if you're curious. That's a 10x premium on what you would pay for that phone anywhere else.

[tujux]

What I took away from their explanation was that they built this for those contract customers (the kind you are talking about) and have had regular consumers asking for this (who want this for other reasons) - why else would they put it on B&H and not just a contact us page on the company website?

I don't know how you can say with confidence that a few hundred dollars and not marketing this wouldn't have an effect on sales.

[m01]

At least the earlier Fairphones continued to work even if you removed some modules (like the camera & microphone), and all you needed for that was a regular-priced Fairphone, a screwdriver and a few minutes of time. I not sure if it's still the case for the current Fairphone, but I don't see why it should've changed either.

[throwaway81523]

I won't claim to NEED the feature (I'm not a 3 letter agency or anything) but I'd like to have it on general principle, and I'd pay extra for it, though probably not $400 extra.

This never gets old: https://biggaybunny.tumblr.com/post/166787080920/tech-enthus...

Will someone really pay me $1000 to remove the camera module from an 2020 iPhone SE? Are there some huge obstacles to that? I've disassembled the 2016 model (for battery replacement) and it was a pain, but not a $1000 pain.

For that matter, what about just attacking the camera from the front, with a drill?

[fredoralive]

Looking at pictures, it appears cameraless iPhones tend to have backs without camera holes / lumps, so some custom work is involved beyond just removing the module. Though there’s going to be a degree of “the government can afford it” in the pricing.

Drilling has some obvious issues, most notable if you go too deep you’re going to hit the screen.

[klausa]

And perhaps more importantly for the final price, if you’re paran^W concerned enough about security to the degree of commissioning custom iPhones without cameras, you’re also not going to let a random guy from the street drill into them.

(You also need to remove the front facing camera, which is also a more involved operation.)

[dghlsakjg]

You aren't the market. They don't really care to sell to you. Honestly, they probably actively don't want consumers to have these cameras for after sale support reasons. They would much rather sell you the standard camera and just tell you to turn off the radios if you don't want to use them.

These devices are sold to large institutions. If I need to give 30 employees at, say, a nuclear plant phones without cameras that they can take near classified/confidential equipment, I don't want a guy with a drill, I need a company that can provide 30 phones, a regular supply of replacements and a trustable piece of paper for the security auditors saying these devices are compliant. I need a phone that our security can glance at and know that it is ok. A phone with a drilled out camera is not the same as a phone with no camera for these purposes.

If I need to take photos inside that plant, and make sure that the photos will not be exfiltrated without going through a security audit, I need that camera.

At the scale that these institutions operate paying an extra $1k for a phone or camera that has security compliance outsourced is a no-brainer. Your sourcing team will spend more money investigating if the DIY route is possible than they will just buying from a trustable vendor.