Worst of the Week: Where is my camera phone revolution?

Hello!
And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWirelessNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
According to my super-smart friends over at Gartner, there were 76 million camera phones sold in 2005 in North America. The next year, 2006, there were 107 million camera phones sold. Today, it’s next to impossible to find a cellphone that does not have a camera included.
Now, according to industry overlord CTIA, there were 255.4 million people in the United States with cellphones at the end of last year, and I think it’s safe to assume that the vast majority of those phones include a digital camera of at least marginal quality.
So where’s my camera phone revolution?
I mean, seriously, it’s safe to assume that more than half of all Americans, of any age, carry a cellphone with them wherever they go, and that that phone has a digital camera built into it. Just think of all of those “digital eyes” roaming around the country. Shouldn’t our culture be changing as a result? Or, at the very least, shouldn’t there be more camera-phone stories to write?
Just think about it:
By now, everyone should already subscribe to a service that mails your camera phone pictures of various locations along your work commute, saving you from the surprise of a horrible traffic jam.
If everyone has a camera phone, why are the celebrity paparazzi still around? Indeed, why aren’t we getting man-on-the-scene photos for every major news event in the country?
Why aren’t camera phones being issued to every man, woman and child by police officers keen to capture snapshots of criminals? In fact, why are there even criminals out there anymore? Don’t they know everyone has a camera phone?
And that’s just the major stuff. I mean, I’d be happy to join a camera phone club that would exchange pictures of funny looking people, for example. Or famous people. Heck, I’d even subscribe to a service that tied pictures with maps, giving me an actual snapshot of a location rather than just a street address.
Now, I know that there are plenty of examples of camera phone use in society. There was Michael Richards’ racist explosion, and of course Saddam’s hanging. But I would’ve expected more by now.
Also, I know that there are a number of commercially available services similar to the ones I have described. But I would be surprised if they are heavily used. Further, I would argue that the technological and cultural revolution promised by a camera-toting populace has not yet occurred, and for that I am angry and hungry (though, to be fair, I’m always hungry).
So my call to the wireless industry is this: Get a move on! Let’s see some useful, innovative services that are not just available but promoted and – most importantly – used.
I would get started on this myself, but I’m just too lazy.
OK! Enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this Worst of the Week column. And now, some extras:
–Check out this picture. I’m including it in this column because that one dude is wearing a Bluetooth headset, which makes it somewhat related to the wireless industry, but mainly because it’s just a really funny picture.
–Qualcomm issued a press release about Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez’s visit to the company’s headquarters. I find this incredibly useful. I hope that the restaurant where Mr. Gutierrez ate and the hotel where he slept issue similar releases.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at mdano@crain.com.