According to New Scientist, origami techniques are providing cameras in cellphones with a much better focusing mechanism.
"Thanks to a novel and ultra-cheap micromotor technology, cellphone cameras should soon be able to zoom and focus with the same precision as the autofocusing lenses used in expensive stills cameras.1 Limited of Cambridge, UK, has found a novel way to make a thin sheet of a piezoelectric ceramic material work like a motor. It can move whatever is placed on top of it, or it can be rolled into a cylinder to grasp and move a miniature camera lens."
Moving from fixed-focus to variable focus should provide a large improvement in picture quality. Of course, I'm not sure I'd put picture quality as my #1 concern when it comes to cellphones, but maybe that's just me.
