Camera Phone Demand Soon to Peak; Low Picture Resolution and Other Factors Fail to Meet Users Expectations

In-Stat: Phones with the ability to take images, both still and video, have captured about 40% of the wireless phone market. Despite the products’ popularity, many camera phone users want higher resolution, the ability to use storage media, and many of the state-of-the-art features found in modern digital cameras. These desires, plus the fact that many users already have a high-resolution digital camera, lead In-Stat to forecast that the North American market for camera and camcorder phones will peak in

2007. That dissatisfaction with picture quality is only one factor that is severely limiting sending or printing camera phone images.

• The vast majority of users in the survey also use a high-resolution digital camera in addition to their camera phones. Only 3% of the respondents use their phone as their only digital camera.

• Most survey respondents indicated that they take fewer than 10 pictures with their camera phone each month.

• Fewer than 2% of respondents say they will consider a camera phone with less than 1 megapixel, while more than 50% say they would only consider a handset with more than 2 megapixels of resolution.

Multi-Megapixel Camera and Camcorder Phones—The End of the Beginning Publ 20060208