Camera phones don't live up to expectations

Phones with the ability to take images, both still and video, have captured about 40% of the wireless phone market, reports In-Stat. Despite the products' popularity, 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, the high-tech market research firm says.

"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," said Bill Hughes, In-Stat analyst.

In a companion report, In-Stat also found that dissatisfaction with picture quality is only one factor that is severely limiting sending or printing camera phone images.

A recent report by In-Stat found the following:

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.