Like all cameras nowadays, you don't get the MP on the tin. The only camera I've ever had that gave you the real MP was a Canon EOS 10D (6MP) DSLR. Cameras nowadays, viewing at 100% (one photo pixel to one monitor pixel) it doesn't look as sharp as 50%. Did the EOS 10D have a 24MP sensor and bin pixels? Did it have an astronomically good lens? I don't know. But my Fujifilm Finepix S1000fd compact camera (if that's the right word, it has a real 10x optical zoom) claims 6MP, but like the Iphone it's worth a quarter of that, 1.5MP.
Even more strangely, the 48MP and the 12MP shots HunterBD sent me both have this problem, they don't look clear at 100%. It seems the only way to get a sharp picture is to use 4x the pixels you need, then view it smaller, not let the camera do it. I have no explanation as to why this happens.