Camera phones encroaching digital camera territory
It was sure to come, but interestingly, after all the books and studies about disruptive technologies, it still isn't a trend recognised early enough or dismissed as irrelevant and not appropriate - until it is happening. Now it is happening to the digital camera manufacturers - the Kodak's and the Canon's. Reuters reports that especially Asian mobile phone makers roll out handsets that get better and better and better.
What does this indicate? That the megapixel market moves upwards, away from the 1 megapixel or 2 megapixels, to higher and higher values - soon, 6 megapixels or even 8 will be more common.
Camera phones' greatest advantage simply is, that they can be connected to the Internet and you can send pictures to friends, families or just moblog. Will we have digital cameras that can connect to the internet or which allow to send pictures to friends? What is so far missing is the strength of zooms.
To give some impression of the growth, let's give some nubmers: sales of camera-equipped phones outnumbered those of digital cameras in 2003 for the first time, rising almost five-fold from 2002 to 84 million.
Strategy Analytics (US) forecasts the market to double in 2004 to 174 million phones. Digital camera shipments are expected to grow at a slower 40%- pace tp 68.5 million units, peacking at 77.5 million phones in 2005 and falling in 2006.
Interestingly, Casio from Japan will be ahead of the pack when they, together with telecommunications carrier KDDI, launch a 3.2 megapixel handset that competes against its own digital cameras. Cannibalisation - that is what it is called, and that is the way to go.
What does this indicate? That the megapixel market moves upwards, away from the 1 megapixel or 2 megapixels, to higher and higher values - soon, 6 megapixels or even 8 will be more common.
Camera phones' greatest advantage simply is, that they can be connected to the Internet and you can send pictures to friends, families or just moblog. Will we have digital cameras that can connect to the internet or which allow to send pictures to friends? What is so far missing is the strength of zooms.
To give some impression of the growth, let's give some nubmers: sales of camera-equipped phones outnumbered those of digital cameras in 2003 for the first time, rising almost five-fold from 2002 to 84 million.
Strategy Analytics (US) forecasts the market to double in 2004 to 174 million phones. Digital camera shipments are expected to grow at a slower 40%- pace tp 68.5 million units, peacking at 77.5 million phones in 2005 and falling in 2006.
Interestingly, Casio from Japan will be ahead of the pack when they, together with telecommunications carrier KDDI, launch a 3.2 megapixel handset that competes against its own digital cameras. Cannibalisation - that is what it is called, and that is the way to go.
posted by Andreas @ 2:46 pm
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