I did ask Polaroid back then about the possibility of integrating the printer into its digital cameras to come up with a true successor to the Polaroid instant camera, and the response was, with a wry smile, that advancements would come “at a later date”.

Now Amateur Photographer is asking its readers to help design Polaroid’s next camera: a ‘professional and business’ model with an integrated printer capable of producing 4 x 3in prints – the same size as the iconic Polaroid prints of old. A survey on the site allows readers to specify attributes like pixel count, print quality and the battery’s print capacity, with prizes for the best suggestions.

Lower-end models for consumers are also rumoured to be in the pipeline with an integrated 2 x 3in PoGo printer, but it’s the 4 x 3in prints we really want. I’ve seen the prints and they’re not bad at all – they dry instantly and the level of detail is perfectly adequate, but it’s the sheer convenience that quickly stamped out my initial doubts. Hopefully Polaroid will go the whole hog and add some good on-camera editing tools, too.

A little argument has broken out in the PC Pro office as to the point of such a device in this day and age, but I can see it catching on as long as the camera doesn’t double in size to accomodate the printer. The new cameras are due out in 2009 and here’s my guess as to what they definitely won’t look like.