Photo Marketing magazine, a publication of the Photo Marketing Association International, has an interesting article about the present and future of camera phones. I'm quoted rather extensively, but don't let that stop you from reading!
The reporter interviewed several analysts who discuss camera phones in the United States, Europe and Japan, including the future of printing camera phone photos. If you're in the photo business, you know printing is a huge part of the industry.
Today's camera phones with 640 x 480 resolution aren't really acceptable for printing. But when one megapixel camera phones arrive in the U.S. late this year or next year, I believe it will be something of a tipping point because photos can be printed (albeit small) without looking terrible.
Overseas use
In Japan, many people print photos on stickers that they paste onto envelopes, letters, whatever. One analyst, Ron Tussy, president of the Imerge Consulting Group, says when purchasing a camera phone, the Japanese are concerned first about image quality, second about the size of the device and third about battery life.
Tussy says some urban areas of China are ahead of the U.S. in use of camera phones. He notes that "China doesn’t have the user paradigms already established in North America during the past 20 - 30 years. China’s lack of landline and film infrastructures has allowed the country to circumvent the paradigms in which North America seems entrenched."
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