Cell phones with cameras are becoming a major consumer phenomenon, with sales figures on pace to equal the combined totals for both film and digital cameras in 2003, and far outstrip them in 2004, according to Tony Henning, editor of Future Image's Wireless Imaging information service.

Already hugely popular in Japan, where 30 million carry them, phones with cameras have been slowed in the U.S. by network haggling. Only two million Americans thus far carry the devices, according to Henning. However, as carriers come to terms on how to divvy up the profits, sales floodgates are expected to open.

Henning cited taking pictures of whiteboards in meetings as an example of the utility of camera phones for business.

Phone camera sales versus digital camera sales, 2001-2003
(Source: Future Image. © 2003)

For 2003, 50 million phones with cameras will reach consumers, along with 40 million phones with camera attachments. At the same time, 32-35 million digital cameras and 60 million film cameras are expected to sell.

Future Image last reported on phone-camera sales in March of 2003, when president Alexis Gerard noted, “In less than four years from their first commercial introduction, these devices will have become the world's most widely used picture-taking appliances.”

 
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