Sony's Idou 12-megapixel camera could well have a twin brother soon; Korean Chaebol LG has committed itself to release a smartphone with a 12-megapixel camera this year to compete with Sony's model. Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, LG's UK marketing chief Jeremy Newing said that the company will likely release the phone as part of a the traditional megapixel race.

He compared this to purchasing a car, adding that when having to purchase two equal cars, one always go for the one with the bigger engine; he pointed out though that having to transfer those files on most networks could prove to be a real challenge.

A 12-megapixel cameraphone is likely to generate 3MB files (100 percent quality, 24 bit per pixel) which would be fine for local storage but which will probably takes minutes to be sent. Unlike Sony or Samsung, LG doesn't have any stand alone camera segment to protect which means that.

The company is likely to bring about features that will allow it to compete more effectively with dedicated cameras, like improved lenses, decent optical zoom (ed: Finally!), face detection, better image stabiliser and ISO setting.LG already have two 8-megapixel cameraphones, the KC910 and KC780, and the 8-MP segment is becoming more crowded with new models from Samsung and Nokia coming to the market soon.