Similar to the way a woodpecker diligently hammers away at a tree trunk, the camera phone market has been pecking away at the digital camera market for years now.
Seen as nothing more that a curiosity when first introduced in the early part of this decade, the category has slowly but surely evolved to the point where many of the newer devices are now capable of taking excellent pictures and are offering consumers a variety of new tools for sharing and archiving their images.
With both of the major wireless shows now past (Mobile World Congress/MWC and CTIA), the wave of higher-end camera phones continues to crest. Clearly, what was once considered an unimportant “add-on” feature, the ability for a cellphone to capture images is now front and center in the category.
"There has been a major shift in consumer preference towards higher resolution camera phones,” explained Lauren Sosik, a wireless market analyst from New York. “We expect the focus in this market will continue to shift towards handsets with higher camera resolution and additional functionality that more competitively aligns them to a digital camera.”
Adding some weight to Sosik’s feelings, witness the following announcements over the last several months in the camera phone arena:
At MWC, Sony Ericsson announced the Idou, a 12MP camera phone with a 3.5-inch LCD panel, built-in flash, auto focus, touchscreen UI and microSD removable media. If the rumor mill out of MWC holds true you can expect LG to hit the market soon with a 12MPer of their own.
Samsung introduced the 8-megapixel Memoir, a camera phone that comes equipped with a Xenon flash, CMOS auto focus and 16x digital zoom. The Memior also allows users to set special effects on an image, including black and white, sepia, negative and watercolor. Add features like blink detection, face detection, anti-shake to reduce blur, and geo-tagging, along with the ability to record video for up to 60 minutes and you’ve got a very interesting new entry into this space from Samsung.
The Kodak/Motorola partnership that recently produced the “Zine” is interesting on a few fronts but of major note was the fact Kodak (a digital camera manufacturer) was pushing this one as a camera that could replace a point-and-shoot. This model also answers the call for more affordable handsets in this space as for $99 with a service contract you’re good to go. We're talking 5-megapixels, rich colors, automatic white balance and red-eye reduction and the Zine even looks like a camera from the back, with a gleaming purple shutter button and a lens cover that slides open to reveal that full Xenon flash.
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