Electronic News reports on camera phones competing against dig

Electronic News reports on the booming market for camera phones and how they are eating into the low end of the digitial camera business. 

The article also discusses the challenges of developing a camera phone that can rival digital cameras in image quality and features.

Tony Henning, an analyst at Future Image and editor of the Mobile Imaging Report, says, camera phones "will take some of the market away.  It will start at the low end first and impact the single use camera market.

"Certainly by the end of the year more than half of camera phones will be able to produce acceptable 4x6 prints."  Tony notes that the camera phone is killing the single-use film camera business.

Revolution, but with challenges

Mel Conway, a product marketing manager at Analog Devices that provides components for camera phones, says the Piezo motor "will revolutionize the business by allowing extremely small auto focus and extremely small optical zoom."

There are, obviously, still significant challenges for camera phones.  Handset manufacturers need to keep the price and weight low and the size small while also adding capabilities to produce good photos.

As Tony says, "There are things about a stand alone camera that cannot be duplicated at the camera form factor, such as powerful flashes, big lenses, auto focus.  These things you cannot put into a phone and still call it a phone."