What is the importance of Megapixel in digital camera?

I want to buy Nikon 8000 digital camera for US $ 249.99.Is there any other camera better than than this one. Thois camera has 10 mega pixel and 10x zoom

I believe the megapixel is a great thing for the camera I thnk it has to do with how well the pictures turn out but i don't know but i do know that there are alot better cameras for the same price if not better try bestbuy.

The importance is the higher the mega pixels the more clear and better the pictures come out the lower the badder they look 10 mega pixels is very good!

Megapixels are not important- they only dictate the size of an image. Most people don't need more than 8, so 10 is fine

along with that, companies are packing more and more megapixels into their cameras that have tiny sensors. The result is degraded image quality

It's a marketing strategy to drive camera prices up. They sell you lots of megapixels, more than you'll ever need. Zoom X's is another ploy they use.