WEYMOUTH, Mass.-Worldwide camera-phone shipments are expected to grow from 178 million units last year to more than 860 million units in 2009, according to projections from InfoTrends/CAP Ventures.
During the same timeframe, camera phones will grow to account for 89 percent of all mobile-phone handsets shipped, said the firm. The growth of camera phones will be driven by improvements in imaging functions like image sensors, zoom and auto focus, as well as rapid declines in prices, higher-speed wireless bandwidth and easier-to-use handsets, service and peripherals, said InfoTrends/CAP Ventures.
“Society is moving into an era of ubiquitous imaging that offers the ability to capture, store, send, print and view an image anywhere,” said Jeff Hayes, a director at InfoTrends/CAP Ventures. “We believe mobile imaging will have the kind of impact that e-mail had on document communications in the 1990s. We project that the total number of images captured on camera phones will reach 227 billion by 2009, exceeding the number of photos taken on digital still cameras and film cameras combined.”
Other findings of the report include 12.5 percent of Japanese consumers with camera phones said they use them as their primary cameras; about half of consumers who do not currently own camera phones have considered buying them; consumers in North America and China take about 20 pictures per month compared with only five per month in Japan; and consumers print about 8 to 10 percent of their camera-phone pictures, except in Japan where only 1 to 2 percent of photos are ever printed.
