Mobile phones have the potential to add another dimension to digital photography.  With camera phones, people are able to take their camera with them everywhere they go. An increasing number of mobile phones are being produced and sold with camera capabilities. The convenience factor is very high but the quality and flexibility of digital cameras still far surpass camera phones. InfoTrends reports the total number of images captured on camera phones will reach 228 billion by 2010, exceeding the number of photos taken on digital still cameras and film cameras combined. For many consumers, the camera phone will be their everyday camera.

Camera phones will put immense competitive pressures on one-time use cameras and low-end cameras. The rapid growth of camera phones will create growing opportunities for printing and sharing of images. The value of camera phone photo printing will reach approximately $7.0 billion by 2010, approximately 60 percent of which will take place in the home. Image messaging revenue will reach $6.8 billion by 2010, and increasingly will become a part of other value-added multimedia services.

Camera Phones Dominate Worldwide
In 2005, 45 percent of all mobile phones sold in the U.S. were camera phones, up from 26 percent in 2004, according to InfoTrends. Asia followed a very similar trend. Western Europe had a higher incidence of camera phones at 64 percent, and Japan had a much greater adoption rate with more than 90 percent of all mobile phones sold with camera capabilities both in 2004 and 2005.

Even though there are an increasing number of mobile phones with camera capabilities, consumers are using them more likely for spur-of-the-moment picture taking and not for planned events where they are taking along better quality and higher resolution digital cameras. More and more U.S. consumers are using camera phones as their mobile phone of choice The number of camera phones in operation is expected to have almost doubled in 2005, reaching 30 million units, from 16 million in 2004. The penetration of camera phones is also thought to have already surpassed 20 percent of the 115 million U.S. households.

Until now, camera phones have had limited success in penetrating uses traditionally held by digital camera users, like preserving memories or printing. Limitations are posed by, most notably, low-resolution sensors, minimal zoom, no flash, low storage capacity, difficult user interface and limited connectivity options. The majority of camera phones in use today carry low-resolution sensors, which accommodate quick transmission of images through wireless networks. There are many more VGA camera phones than higher-resolution camera phones in the North American market, and 2-megapixel or greater camera phones are still rare. Higher-resolution units, however, are entering the pipeline. Sony Ericsson recently unveiled two 3.2-megapixel models under the Cyber-shot name. Nokia plans some new announcements in the coming year.

With more upcoming enhancements in resolution, storage capacity, Bluetooth printing capability and network bandwidths, camera phone penetration one day will surpass digital camera penetration in the U.S. PMA reports that in Japan there are almost 89 million wireless subscribers, among a total population of 127 million people. Eighty-three percent or 75 million wireless subscribers own a camera phone. This brings the camera phone penetration rate to 59 percent, compared to 46 percent for digital cameras in Japan. How quickly might the Japanese situation be experienced here in the U.S. depends on many factors including the progress toward faster cell phone networks.