Camera Phones: Digital Camera Boon or Buster?

After IDC issued a report that claimed cameraphones were actually driving the sales of standalone digital camera, TechNewsWorld covered the story and sought additional insight from Jupiter analyst Michael Gartenberg.

Gartenberg agreed with with IDC's assessment and said, "Camera phones will not become digital cameras, nor will music-enabled phones displace iPods or MP3 players. These devices will be an addition to, not instead of."

Gartenberg believed context was a key factor to consider when choosing a device to carry. For example, a camera phone should suffice for simple snapshots of friends when out for a night on the town.

Usage model is another factor. As Gartenberg notes, "The cell phone user, for the most part, isn't going to pay money for the camera feature. They are getting the camera as part of the phone and aren't paying extra for it,. A digital camera is something that you go out and buy because you want to take photographs," he said

On the topic of IDC's finding that most consumers don't print camera phone photos due to low image quaility, Gartenberg added, "Often consumers don't have an easy way to get the pictures off the camera. So they use them as wallpaper and screensavers instead of printing them. It shows how consumers are changing the way they are interacting with digital technology. Consumers are realizing that there's many ways they can interact with their pictures other than just printing them out and pasting them into an album."