its just an advertising ploy... ask any non-serious camera user about cameras or for a comparison between them (in the digital sense) they are going to ask "So how many MP does yours have?"

 i'd love to see what they have to say in response to me saying my cam has 8MP which cost £500 more than the equivalent in compact. Probably something along the lines of "HA! mine is as good as yours!"

So yeah - they can now boast in their advertising to the uneducated masses: "The highest Megapixel compact camera in the world!"

meh...

"In every colour, there's the light.
In every stone sleeps a crystal.
Remember the Shaman, when he used to say:
Man is the dream of the Dolphin"

Rich Meadows Photography