A new view on camera phones
Colin Johnson bought a camera phone in May and the 33-year-old San Francisco entrepreneur has been recording his life with it ever since.
“Years of my life have gone by with no photo record whatsoever,” said Johnson, the chief executive of Eyetools, an Internet research firm. “Now I take pictures wherever I go.”
Johnson whipped out the camera phone at a wedding, taking impromptu candid pictures of the bride and groom. He sent the images to his parents who couldn’t attend the event.
He has taken pictures of his cat sitting on a printer and of a woman he saw on the street who was hanging upside down from a bicycle rack talking on her own cell phone. Johnson once used his phone cam to shoot 10-second videos to help an out-of-town friend from pick roommate prospects.
Johnson rarely ever shoots anything with his old film camera and he doesn’t own a digital still camera.
More people may be tempted to do the same as camera phones begin to pack the megapixel punch of digital still cameras.
The vast majority of camera phones sold in the United States this year have a resolution of less than 1 megapixel, according to Alex Slawsby, an analyst at market researcher International Data Corp.
In contrast, most digital still cameras feature 3 megapixels or more and remain the choice of professional photographers and others who cherish the highest quality. A 4-megapixel camera will produce an image consisting of about 4 million tiny dots known as pixels. The more pixels, the shaper the image.
But megapixel camera phones are hitting the market elsewhere. In South Korea, for instance, 3-megapixel phonecams are becoming common. Last month Samsung unveiled a 5-megapixel model that can record up to 100 minutes of video. Those phonecams are expected to eventually make their way to North America.
Worldwide, camera phones already are outpacing sales of digital still cameras. Phone stores such as Cingular Wireless are advertising camera phones for just $49 with a multiyear service contract.
Enticed by falling prices and the improving quality of camera phones, consumers also are buying the gadgets because they permit more spontaneous picture-taking. Johnson views his phone as a social tool, allowing him to send little photographic gifts to his friends that make them smile or laugh.
In 2004, about 196 million camera phones will ship worldwide, according to IDC. That’s about 32 percent of all cell phones. By 2008, IDC says the figure will grow to 642 million, or 68 percent of all cell phones. By comparison, digital still camera shipments will hit 68 million in 2004 and 100 million in 2008.
By then, the majority of camera phones will take images with resolutions greater than 2 megapixels, said Slawsby, the IDC analyst.
Consumers such as Johnson expect that they will upgrade their phones as more megapixels become available. So far, he can store 30 to 60 pictures on his phone and said he is constantly running out of memory.
“Over time, you’re going to see that the phones pick up even more capability, like longer recording times for shooting video,” said Warren East, chief executive of ARM, the leading cell phone microprocessor design company.
Dallas-based Texas Instruments has introduced a new generation of its cell phone chips that will enable 6-megapixel camera phones at mainstream prices next year, according to TI technologist Mike Yonkers.