Reiter's Camera Phone Report

Photopreneur posts good tips for taking camera phone photo that sell

“Photopreneur” has written “17 Ways to Take Camera Phone Photos that Sell,” that has worthwhile suggestions about how to take photos and what subjects to take.

Some suggestions include:

*  Take unconventional shots, such as holding the phone above your head, shooting around corners and interesting angles.

*  Photograph images of celebrities in interesting situations, such as a kiss or “a mouth full of pie.”

*  “Become a bounty hunter” to be on the lookout for specific subjects

*  Take images that aren’t covered by professional photographers, such as images in the stands during sporting events, during small demonstrations of “a witty banner or a painted face” or of fans around a stage door during or after a concert.

Business apps

Here’s one I especially like:  “If you’re not a professional photographer, take your camera phone to work and take regular snaps behind the scenes.  Again, these images are unlikely to end up on a gallery wall, but they will bring in potential customers and give you product sales.”

Among the many problems with the way cellular operators run their camera phone businesses, the lack of virtually any information on the corporate ramifications of wireless imaging is one of their worst mistakes.  Most of the operators — and handset vendors — are clueless about the value of promoting enterprise applications and, instead, concentrating almost exclusively on consumer applications with nary a nod to business uses.

Photobility weblog articles need modifications for BuzzAboutWireless

Updated (10-4-07):  Tristan Kime, the manager of program management - community at Sprint, read my article and addressed my concerns.  He e-mailed me that the "Written by Tristan" was indeed a coding issue and it has been fixed.  He agrees that the formatting needs to be fixed, but it's a matter of having the time to do so.

In addition, there is a limitation on categories in BuzzAboutWireless compared with Photobility's.  Also, the Photobility articles on BuzzAboutWireless end in mid-April, rather than through June, because Sprint's lawyers haven't approved them....yet (?).

Sprint's lawyers had to read and approve every article I wrote for Sprint's camera phone weblog.  None of my articles were ever rejected for editorial content, but it took time -- sometimes a very, very long time.

So, thank you Tristan for the update.

I was looking at Sprint's BuzzAboutWireless "community" site and see that a few weeks ago that "Photobility," consumer-oriented camera phone weblog I helped write for Sprint has been incorporated into BuzzAboutWireless (see  below).   

Unfortunately, the integration of "Photobility" with BuzzAboutWireless is less than ideal. 

Firstly, I wrote about 49 percent of the articles and Tony Henning, a photography consultant at Future Image, wrote another 49 percent, with Sprint employees writing the remaining two percent.  However, if you click on any of the Photobility articles in BuzzAboutWireless, you'll see that below the headline is the byline "Written by Tristan." 

No, Tristan didn't write anything.  Tony and I mostly did.  I assume this was originally the fault of whoever imported the Photobility articles, rather than deliberate plagiarism.  However, it has been almost a month since that has occurred and the byline hasn't been changed to reflect the real writers. 

Where's the rest?

Secondly, I wrote Photobility articles through June 2007.  The articles in BuzzAboutWireless end in mid-April.  There are more than 20 articles I wrote through June, plus whatever Tony wrote.  Where are those articles? 

Thirdly, all the articles in Photobility had spaces between the paragraphs and also between the subheads in order to make the articles easier to read.  When the articles were imported into BuzzAboutWireless, the paragraph spacing wasn't "imported" so that everything is just a big block of text. 

Fourthly, all the Photobility articles were tagged with at least one "category" to make them easier to find.  I was adamant about incorporating that feature.  The imported articles, however, do not include any categories. 

Check out the real deal

If you want to get an idea of what Photobility used to look like when it was live, check out archive.org and click on the most recent link for what used to be photobility.sprint.com.  Perhaps I'm being a little bit picky, but I'm very careful about journalistic integrity as well as ensuring a good reader experience. 

I think Photobility was an excellent weblog (my participation notwithstanding) that provided valuable information about camera phones for consumers, and I was sorry to see it end.

MIPC study reports 40+ percent of Japanese print camera phone photos

The Japanese — especially women — are printing more camera phone photos than you might imagine, according to a study conducted by the Mobile Imaging and Printing Consortium (MIPC).  However, printing and wanting to print doesn’t necessarily mean people understand how to adjust the resolution of their photos!

The MIPC was established to promote printing of photos using a variety of methods (such as Bluetooth, infrared, WiFi).  The organization’s survey says more than 40 percent of people surveyed said they had printed camera phone photos. 

More than 50 percent of working women and grandmothers said they had printed camera phone photos.

Digital camera versus camera phone

In addition, more than 50 percent of people surveyed said they used their camera phones several times a day.  Twenty percent of female high school students said they used their camera phones every day.

Forty two percent of the survey’s respondents said they use a digital camera “for important photos of special occasions and major events, and a camera phone for snapshots."  The MIPC release notes, “The results point to a difference in the ways digital cameras and camera phones are used depending on circumstances.”

This certainly isn’t a surprise.  But we’re also seeing — and will continue to see — people using their camera phones with increasing frequency instead of digital cameras as the quality of camera phone images improves.

Sad lack of knowledge

One interesting, but rather sad, aspect of the survey is that more than 60 percent of people surveyed said the most frequently used photo size was “standby display” (240 x 320) and VGA (640 x 480).  The majority of users take photos with the default resolution.

In other words, the respondents indicated either they didn’t know about changing the resolution or didn’t care.  I strongly suspect it’s the former.

The press release says that with increasing camera phone resolutions (especially in Japan where three megapixels to five megapixels aren’t unusual — unlike in the United Sates), “many users have expressed dissatisfaction over print-image quality when taking photos using the ‘standby display’ and ‘VGA’ size settings.”

More education needed

Well, duh!  Of course they don’t like the quality of photos at these two low resolutions.

I don’t know how camera phone education is in Japan.  But cellular operators in the U.S. generally have done a terrible job of educating consumers about how to best use their camera phones (among many other phone features).

The MIPC release says, “It is believed that a vital key to increasing the print rate of camera phone photos will be increasing user awareness of how to change photo-size settings to enable higher image resolution compared with default settings, and how to adjust other camera settings.”

For years I have been complaining about the operators’ lack of customer education.  And I will continue to do so.  The operators don’t seem to understand is the more customers understand how to use their phones for different applications, the more those applications will be used.  Another duh.

Depressing conversation: Lack of movement in U.S. camera phone business

I was speaking to an executive at a photography association who understands not just the “traditional” photo market but also camera phones.  The conversation was rather depressing because he discussed how cellular operators in the United States seem to be ignoring photo retailers and the camera phone business in general.

He noted how a few years ago the operators were gung ho about trying to recruit photo retailers to become involved in camera phone sales.  Now, he says, that effort is basically dead and the operators have moved on to other applications, such as wireless music and mobile television.

So he was pondering what role photo retailers can play in the camera phone business.  This is not easy because it requires more proactive marketing by photo retailers and better quality handsets.

Don’t rely on the operators

I said to him that when I consult for companies in the mobile data business (it’s my business after all) I always look at ways to generate income that don’t require participation by cellular operators. 

Some content providers just don’t understand (at least at first) that they are one of hundreds or thousands of providers who are working with cellular operators and the operators typically don’t have the time or interest to spend market individual companies.

That’s not a hard and fast rule, but it’s a good one to follow.  Being placed on the handset’s “deck” and among the many other applications that may be searched is all too often that last step the operators take with many content providers.

Be proactive

So for photo retailers who want cellular operators to spend much time with them — when camera phones aren’t generating the gobs of cash the operators had originally projected — is pretty much a forelone hope.  Cellular operators would much rather spend time with big-name companies that can also spend big bucks to market their own mobile content rather than just relying on the operators.

To be fair, the cellular operators have a point.  Content providers that expect the operators to do all their work don’t understand what the mobile business is all about and how the carriers operate.

If photo retailers want to become players in the camera phone business they are going to have to be more proactive — without the cellular operators.  They could, for example, help their customers understand how to get their photos out of their phone for printing.  They could help their customers learn about camera phones that take the best photos and how to take better photos.

They could help them learn about photo accessories, ranging from photo albums to dog collars.  They could distribute brochures with this information around their store.  They could hold consumer-oriented camera phone seminars.

Lagging on better camera phones

Unfortunately, the U.S. cellular operators aren’t moving as fast as they could — or should — by introducing better-quality camera phones.  It’s not that better phones aren’t available.

As I’ve written many, many times, VGA camera phones are awful.  Camera phones with 1.3 megapixel cameras are the bare minimum that should be sold in this country — and this assumes the quality is at the upper end, rather than the lower end.

It’s when you get to two megapixel camera phone photos that many consumers are going to stop complaining about their “crappy camera phone pictures.”  This assumes that those two megapixel handsets incorporate components and software that produce higher quality images. 

High resolution (relatively speaking) alone doesn’t produce good photos, as I’ve also written many times.

Ofcom "Communications Market Report" says U.K. users most aware of camera on phone

A big (330–page) U.K. government report on the state of wired and wireless communications contains a wealth of information on a wide range of technologies and applications, including a bit of good news about camera phones.

The Office of Communications’ (Ofcom) “Communications Market Report” (available in three sections plus summaries) says that based on surveys the non-voice feature of cellular phones that consumers are most aware of (not including SMS) is the camera.  Sixty five percent of cellular users are aware their phone has a camera and 41 percent have used the camera (see below).

The report notes the percentage of awareness is likely to increase as consumers replace their phones with newer models and as greater percentages of phones include cameras.  Currently, 84 percent of handsets sold in the U.K. incorporate a camera.

Why are cameras No. 1?

Why are cellular subscribers most aware of the camera even though other features (such as games) were introduced earlier?  Ofcom speculates, “It is interesting to note that the awareness of the camera feature is highest, followed by games and alarms, which have been available for longer as mobile phone functions. 

“This may be because the camera is a physical part of the handset, which is more difficult to overlook than a menu item or because there has been more publicity about camera function than other features.”

The report notes the majority of consumers who were surveyed said the features on their phones didn’t affect their use of dedicated devices.  However, Ofcom reports that a “significant minority” say their use of dedicated devices has decreased because of features on handsets.

Indeed, 38 percent of consumers surveyed say their use of regular cameras has decreased because of the cameras on the phones (see below) — as well as decreases in the use of other standalone devices because of cellular features.  Moreover this could be just the beginning of less use of dedicated devices.

Ofcom says, “As the level of sophistication of these features on mobile phones has only recently approached that of basic level specialist devices. the impact has probably not yet been felt in the replacement lifecycle of the separate device.”

Not all good news for new features

Ofcome has bad news, however, for proponents of mobile television (as I am).  Mobile televison didn’t fare as well — to say the least — as camera phone awareness and use.  Check out the article I’ll posted later tonight on my “Reiter’s Mobile TV Report.”

Don't forget — if you’re at all interested in the U.K. telecommunications environment — Internet, WiFi, cellular, broadcast/cable television, etc. — be sure to check out the entire Ofcom report.  MocoNews.net has a brief summary of the report and BBC News has a detailed article about the report’s findings plus two video reports.

Sprint ends camera phone weblog Photobility

Sprint has, alas, ended its camera phone weblog, “Photobility.”  I helped to develop it and was one of the two main writers for the weblog that was, surprisingly, very “nondenominational” when it came to the type of articles allowed.  Indeed, Photobility published a wide range of articles regardless of the type of phone or system on which they were used.

Very, very few articles discussed Sprint’s camera phone products and services.  Indeed, I thought there could have been more such articles!  But the Sprint executives who conceived the weblog wanted it to be as unbiased as possible — an information resource, not a blatant marketing vehicle.  It was a rather “brave” — and commendable — vision.

Articles included such topics as privacy and security (including the negative aspects of camera phones), tips and recommendations for how to take better photos and videos, different types of photo/video sharing sites, ways to transfer photos, camera phone art exhibitions and photographers, the latest developments in imaging technology in the United States and around the world and many trends.

Content not an issue

Since I was part of the weblog team (hired as an independent wireless data consultant), I can’t/shouldn’t discuss why Photobility met its demise.  The previous Sprint executives spent a lot of time and effort trying to push through a camera phone weblog that was, well, a fairly leading-edge product for conservative cellular operators.

I can say, though, that the quality and type of articles weren’t an issue.  The Powers That Be, as far as I know, liked the content.  I’m certainly biased, but I liked the articles, too, and I usually tried to write why they were important to the weblog audience.

Dead but not completely buried

Although Photobility is dead, a Sprint forum, “BuzzAboutWireless,” is going to include all of the weblog’s articles in the near future (see below).

Would any company like me to help them create/write a camera phone weblog?  Give me a shout!

iPhone airtimes rates released but photo pricing not mentioned

Apple has posted the airtime rate plans for the iPhone (see above) -- starting at $59.99 for 450 minutes -- although there's no information about MMS pricing.

One interesting aspect of the airtime plans is they all include unlimited e-mail and Web access as part of the package.  The plans listed on Apple's Web site also include as standard visual voicemail (access voicemail in any order you want), rollover minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes.

All the plans come with 200 SMS messages.

The most expensive of the six plans on the Web is $219.99 with 6,000 minutes.

iPhone photo pricing?

If the iPhone's unlimited e-mail/Web policies are the same as AT&T's other plans, you will be able to attach photos to your e-mail messages without paying any extra fee.  The iPhone has a two megapixel camera but no flash and no video recording capabilities -- a big boo for that.

There's no price for sending an MMS, rather than attaching a photo in an e-mail, and two AT&T representatives I called didn't even know any rates were publicly available.  I called an AT&T retail store in northwest Washington, D.C. and AT&T's national sales center and I was the one telling them what the rates were!

So, I guess we'll have to wait a day or two or three longer to learn about MMS pricing.

Update:  The New York Times' technology writer, David Pogue, confirms in his review of the iPhone what "siphon" says in the comments to this article:  The iPhone does not have MMS.  As Pogue notes, many cellular phones cannot receive photos via e-mail -- just via MMS -- so many phones won't be able to receive iPhone photos.

Pogue also posted several photos he took with the iPhone.  See my next article for Pogue's photos and comments.

Activation & Sync video

Apple has also just posted an "Activation & Sync" video (see below) that demonstrates how to (1) activate a new iPhone via iTunes and (2) sync content between iTunes and iPhone.  As I've written previously, iTunes is the main way for iPhone users to transfer lots of content via sideloading (downloaded first to the PC and then via cable to the phone).

The video includes how to sync photos on your computer (see below) as well as music, videos, contacts, calendar, browser links, etc.  The video uses the Macintosh's iTunes software, but as the video notes iTunes works with Windows machines, too.

The combination of Apple's "Guided Tour" of the iPhone and this latest "Activation & Sync" video makes it very easy for a new user to get up and running.

Of course, when you're buying any version 1.0 of any electronic gadget, my advice is definitely caveat emptor.  (Check out the column "Don't Get 'Hung Up' On Buying An iPhone" by technology writer and WiFi guru Glenn Fleishman.)

Nokia launches "Eye on Fashion" camera phone contest in India

Nokia today has launched an "Eye on Fashion" contest in India for camera phone photos (see below), according to an article in IT News Online.

The winner receives a high-end Nokia phone.

The contest runs through September 22 and participants may submit a maximum of three images -- taken with a Nokia phone -- based on the theme of "what's your fashion statement."

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

MDA says 50 percent+ U.K. cellular users have camera phones; starts MMS campaign

The U.K.-based Mobile Data Association (MDA) says more than half of the 67 million U.K. cellular subscribers -- 33.5 million-plus -- have camera phones. 

The MDA says it has launched an "MMS Campaign to encourage people to get started with picture messaging, which includes the publishing of generic 'how to' information on its messaging website (see below).

"Users will be able to find information on how to set up their phones to send and receive picture messages, troubleshooting tips, FAQ's, and even links to online photo libraries where your pictures can be viewed by people without camera phones."

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

Washington Post discusses how bloggers promote products, like Nokia Nseries

From picturephoning.com I see my hometown newspaper, The Washington Post, leads with Nokia's blogger relations program for its article about how companies are using bloggers to promote products.

FYI:  As I've disclosed several times, I'm part of the Nokia program and established a "Nokia Nseries weblog" to discuss the phones I evaluate (see below) as well as posting test photos and videos.  So far, I've tested the N70 and N90 camera phones and I hope to test the new 3.2 megapixel N93 camera phone with "DVD-like" video recording quality, as Nokia terms it.

Andy Abramson of the marketing communications firm Comunicano developed the program and established two weblogs -- for the N70 and N90 -- to highlight what has been posted. 

Good and bad

Andy posts good and bad reviews, and except for the initial correspondence I haven't received any e-mail or other notice exhorting me to promote the handsets, although I have written him for information.

Nokia sends out phones -- that must be returned -- and includes a little bit of free airtime -- for bloggers.  I have been mentioned a few times in the N70 and N90 weblogs.

Independently of Nokia, Andy has a well-known VoIP Watch weblog and is the co-host on the Internet technology radio show, KenRadio.

Nokia's strategy

Kim Hart leads her article with with, "When Nokia Corp. released its camera smartphone last fall, the marketing campaign cut back on news releases and flashy ads. 

"Instead, the company sent sample products to 50 tech-savvy amateur bloggers with a passion for mobile phones.

"The tactic paid off, as word spread online about the N-series phone, driving up sales and contributing to a 43 percent profit boost for Nokia last quarter."

Server blow-out

I didn't realize the user weblogs were so important from a profit standpoint.  I also didn't realize how popular the information was.  Andy says in The Washington Post, "So many blogs picked it up that it blew out our server twice.

"We were getting thousands of hits per second.  When you look at the body of information that was generated around this, we knew we had something very special."

Sprint also has a blogger program, called the Sprint Ambassador Program, that I, too, am a part of and have discussed.

By the way...

Articles have been written about how the N93 is "available."  Not in the United States.

The GSM handset might be available at the end of the summer or in the fall, but I don't know whether any U.S. cellular operator has decided to carry it.  The Nseries group of phones is relatively expensive.

I've been told that if you don't see the N93 offered by cellular operators you might be able to find it on the Nokia U.S. site (but not yet!).  However, if you order it directly from Nokia be prepared to pay the full -- non-subsidized -- price for it, and it won't be cheap.