"LetsGoDigital" examines Fujifilm's camera phone efforts, statistics

"LetsGoDigital" today has published a good article about Fujifilm's camera phone efforts as well as including many statistics about camera phone usage.  However, those statistics aren't the most current, I believe.

The article references a "recent" (September 13, 2005) study released by Fuji that was produced by NPD Techworld.  The article also notes Fujifilm's involvement with Cingular Wireless' and Sprint Nextel's printing and postcard camera phone activities.

The study was based on surveying more than 400 camera phone users and showed that 44.6 percent of camera phone subscribers who had taken photos had wished they printed them.

Reasons for not printing

"The most commonly noted reasons for not printing these images included image quality, simplicity of process and overall perceived cost." 

(I've seen these NPD findings discussed fairly frequently, such as presented by the Photo Marketing Association International, at photo conferences during that past several months.)

Neil Strother, research director for mobile devices for The NPD Group, says in that September press release, "Our data show that last year camera phones had penetrated 7 percent of the U.S. market, and now that number is close to 22 percent -- a dramatic year-over-year increase of nearly 200 percent."

LetsGoDigital info

According to LetsGoDigital, Fujifilm says camera phone users print about 26 percent of photos they take.  (I think that's based on the September study.) 

Frankly, I'm surprised that subscribers print that high a percentage.

The weblog post says, based I assume on the survey, "Users are creative and 'communicating' via images, with 92 percent storing and sharing images in a phone album or as screen wallpaper, while 30 percent email images to family and friends from their handset.

"There is a correlation between the number of images taken with a camera phone and the likelihood they will be printed, those who print take nearly twice the number of images per month."

Camera phones as supplements

The study suggests that camera phones are supplementing, not replacing digital cameras. 

"More than 74 percent of camera phone users also own a digital camera; and Similar [sic] to digital cameras, the most common subjects for mobile images are friends, family and children (80.1%), followed by pets (37.2%).

"But, the 'always with you' characteristic of the camera phone tends to generate more 'random' or 'spur of the moment' images (29.8%)."

Pondering these findings

You have to ponder those findings.  It's no surprise that camera phone owners also have digital cameras.  I suspect digital camera owners are more likely to own camera phones.

But over the next few years, as cellular subscribers purchase new handsets, the majority of handsets will have cameras and, probably, video capabilities.  A key question is how good camera phones will be.

If they are good enough to replace digital cameras, the low and middle tier of digital cameras could suffer.  But digital cameras are following, in a sense, Moore's Law -- prices decrease and quality increases.

The future

So I suspect most people will have a digital camera -- because the cost of a good digital won't be burdensome -- and a camera phone.  You do have to wonder, though, whether a three megapixel camera phone that's "good enough" will replace many digital cameras, regardless of the features.

Sales of single-use (disposable) cameras have plummeted.

Comments

[Alan Reiter]

Thanks for pointing that out. I assumed that was the case but couldn't find the press release on the Fuji site. I did link to the previous release about the study. Glad you provided the original release.

[O'Brien]

I'm affraid that's not an article from letsgodigital, but a copy'n'paste text from Fuji's USA press room:

http://www.fujifilm.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/PREventDetailPage.jsp?DBID=NEWS_842817&CAT_ID=721655

The data presented should be observed with rigorous criteria, then.