Consumers Want Quality Cameras on Mobile Phones

The Strategy Analytics Wireless Device Lab service research, "The Camera is Still King: Consumers Willing to Pay for a Quality Camera on Their Mobile Device," shows that a quality camera is the primary mobile phone add-on for which consumers in the U.S. and Western Europe would be willing to pay--and willing to pay the most--compared to other mobile device features.
These findings are based on a survey of over 2800 wireless device owners in the US and Western Europe. The survey showed that mobile consumers are also willing to pay for a video camera, music player and removable memory cards.
"Strategy Analytics research shows that over 60% of all respondents would be willing to pay extra for a quality camera on their mobile device," commented Chris Schreiner, Senior User Experience Analyst at Strategy Analytics. "This desire for imaging features prevails across all age ranges in both regions."
Kevin Nolan, Vice President of the Strategy Analytics User Experience Practice, added, "Cameras, video cameras and music players are quickly becoming table stakes when consumers shop for mobile devices. They also requested additional memory in order to store this media."

Lights. Camera. Cellphone Action.

Spike Lee is teaming up with Nokia, the cellphone maker, to direct a short film comprising YouTube-style videos created by teenagers and adults using their mobile phones.

Guerrilla Mirror Phones - Rogers Video Phone Ads

Rogers, one of the key mobile phone companies in Canada, used clever “mirror phone” guerrilla ads to promote their new video phone service.

Instant Digital Prints (and Polaroid Nostalgia)

Now, Polaroid wants to conjure up those golden analog days of vast sales and instant gratification — this time with images captured by digital cameras and camera phones.

This fall, the company expects to market a hand-size printer that produces color snapshots in about 30 seconds.

Intel reveals its vision for mobile phone evolution

Intel has set its technicians working on a new initiative that it hopes will get mobile devices piggybacking on other devices its user may come across, as well as making use of the increasing number of sensors--such as cameras and GPS--within the device itself.

Camera phone buying guide

Cameras in mobile phones are well past being a low-grade gimmick. The quality of camera phone images has increased significantly, and the sheer convenience makes cameras an indispensable feature in mobile phones today.

New 3-D Camera Will Have 12,616 Lenses

Science Daily (Mar. 19, 2008) — The camera you own has one main lens and produces a flat, two-dimensional photograph, whether you hold it in your hand or view it on your computer screen. On the other hand, a camera with two lenses (or two cameras placed apart from each other) can take more interesting 3-D photos.

Concept Phone with Adjacent Cameras

Designed by Paris-based Lysandre Follet, this unusual dual-camera handset is designed for multi-tasking functionality, claims Motorola. Users can click pictures with one camera while they can shoot with the other one. Also, two separate flashes can be used together at one go.

Cell camera turned medical microscope

Say you're in a remote or undeveloped part of the world, and you have to diagnose an illness. Even if you could find a microscope, you don't have a doctor to look through it, but you do have a cell phone.

Mobile phone sales hit new record in Japan

Handset sales in 2007 marked a gain of 10.7 percent from the previous year. The sales broke the previous annual record of 48.7 million handsets in 2003, when customers snapped up new handsets featuring cameras.

Samsung announces world's thinnest 8 megapixel cellphone module

Measuring just 8.5-mm thin, you're looking at what Samsung claims to be the slimmest CMOS camera module of its kind. The 8 megapixel module is expected to supplant the 5 megapixel job found in todays top-end cameraphones sometime in the second half of the year.

Kodak sees picture of future in high-quality camera phones

Camera phones are increasingly ubiquitous. The number in the United States leaped from 48 million in November 2005 to 132 million in November 2007, according to the research firm M:Metrics.The number of digital cameras in the country hit 106 million in 2007, according to the Photo Marketing Association.

Vodafone Shows Image Search for Mobile Phones

The picture can be anything from a historical building to a CD cover, according to Vodafone. Otello then returns information relevant to the picture to the mobile phone, just like a normal search engine.

CeBIT 2008: Vodafone demos "Otello" visual search

At the CeBIT show in Germany, Vodafone is demonstrating a trial service called "Otello", which is a search engine that uses images, rather than words.

Rather than use a word as a search term, Otello users can send images via MMS from their mobiles and the search service which then returns the results to the user's phone as an "ordinary" search result.

Traffic watch on your Mobile Phone

MOTORISTS could soon use their mobile phones to see live images of traffic congestion on Melbourne's main roads.
VicRoads is investigating technology to enable motorists to view closed-circuit TV footage and maps showing traffic hotspots.

One in five babies has Social Network Profile

Parents in the UK are increasingly using mobile phones and the internet to both announce and give their babies an online presence in the world, according to research carried out by Orange.

Orange discovered that one in five new parents sent a camera-phone image of their newborn baby to friends and family within 10 minutes of it being born. Meanwhile, up to half took pictures of their babies within an hour. The survey questionned 1,000 new and expectant parents.

Mobile Phone Cameras Get Smaller and Smarter with New Imaging Single-Chip Sensor from STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics, a world leader in CMOS imaging technology, has introduced market's smallest single-chip camera sensor for mobile applications. Coupling low space requirements with advanced image processing capabilities, ST's latest 2-megapixel mobile-phone camera sensor addresses consumers' appetite for full- featured imaging solutions in ever-more popular thin-profiled handsets.

Postcards in Peril: Camera Phones, Internet Replacing Souvenir Mail

The reason: The postcard, that cheap and venerable souvenir for the last 120 years, is slowly but inexorably fading from the scene.

Blame it on the surging popularity of digital photos, text messages and those 5,000-word dispatches e-mailed to weary friends and family from Internet cafes the world over.