In-Stat: Camera Phone Demand Soon to Peak; Low Picture Resolution and Other Factors Fail to Meet Users Expectations

Following its report on consumers' disappointment with the quality and cost limiting the usage of camera phones, In-Stat has another new report othat finds handsets "with the ability to take images, both still and video, have captured about 40% of the wireless phone market." The report also noted that "many camera phone users want higher resolution, the ability to use storage media, and many of the state-of-the-art features found in modern digital cameras."

Bill Hughes at In-Stat said, "These desires, plus the fact that many users already have a high-resolution digital camera, lead In-Stat to forecast that the North American market for camera and camcorder phones will peak in 2007." Key findings include:

• The vast majority of users in the survey also use a high-resolution digital camera in addition to their camera phones. Only 3% of the respondents use their phone as their only digital camera.
• Most survey respondents indicated that they take fewer than 10 pictures with their camera phone each month.
• Fewer than 2% of respondents say they will consider a camera phone with less than 1 megapixel, while more than 50% say they would only consider a handset with more than 2 megapixels of resolution.