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It will be rare to find a mobile phone without a camera by 2010, analysts predict.
By 2010, 81 percent of total worldwide mobile phone sales will be sales of camera phones, says Gartner. By comparison, total worldwide sales of mobile phones with built-in cameras will account for 48 percent of mobile phone sales by the end of 2006.
“A camera is a feature that consumers expect to see in new devices whether they are interested in using it or not,” said Gartner principal research analyst, Carolina Milanesi.
Worldwide sales of camera phones, which have almost tripled since 2004, will reach 460 million in 2006, an increase of 43 percent from 2005. This trend is set to continue, leading to sales of one billion camera phones by 2010, Gartner predicts.
Gartner also says companies will battle it out to increase the mega pixel resolution of the inbuilt cameras in the future. By 2007, Gartner predicts that more than half of the camera phones will have models with minimum one or two mega pixels.
“Consumers’ perception that a higher pixel count translates into a higher quality device will encourage mobile phone manufacturers to continue with this drive,” Milanesi said.
Sales of camera phones in Asia Pacific have seen rapid growth from 67.7 million units in 2005 to 106.7 million in 2006, the highest percentage growth of any region. Gartner says this is mainly attributed to higher consumer awareness of the products due to marketing efforts by manufacturers and operators.
Although the number of megapixels remains the main criterion by which consumers chose their camera phone, other features such as flash and automatic zoom are becoming important, Gartner predicts.
