TECHPopuli

Camera Phones

These things are very popular. People are using them to snap all sorts of photos for instant sharing with friends.

According to TechWeb.com they are beginning to canibalize conventional digital camera sales.

TechWeb:

Manufacturers of digital still cameras are expected to steadily lose market share to camera phone makers, market analysts said Monday.

The impact of cellular phones capable of taking and sending pictures will mostly be felt in the market for digital cameras costing $250 or less. Consumers are expected to move away from these low-end cameras in earnest as cellular phone makers introduce products with comparable resolutions.

Some are experimenting with other uses for the built-in camera.

Over at it-analysis.com, Rob Bamforth wonders what future uses for phone cameras might by found. One, he notes, is as a sort of hand controler for playing online games.

it-analysis.com:

German games company, Mobile Scope has tried to use the camera to capture player movement in a new version of its game, Moorhen. The phone motion picked up by the camera is used for targeting the object of this shoot-em-up, the hens.

Bango.net has created a system that uses a circular "bar code" that the camera phone can "scan" and immediately go to a site on the phone's browser. Didn't we try this sort of thing a few years back with codes in magazine ads?

Posted by jackhodgson at March 30, 2004 05:09 PM