Rick Merritt of EE Times went to the Cameraphone Summit in Maui, interviewed many people there and wrote a great article about the camera phone business with lots of information about components, trends and pricing. Don't fail to check it out!
Here are just some of the interesting points:
* Mattel is developing a $25 camera phone for kids. (That I'd like to see!)
* Boeing wants to install camera phones on the back of airplane seats to enable passengers to create in-flight video networks. (Forget the camera phones. Just give me laptop power ports on all flights and in all classes -- and make sure they work. Hint, hint: United Airlines.)
* Samsung wants to push quickly to five megapixel camera phones and make digital cameras devices for professionals only.
* Cellular networks might not be able to keep up with the large files generated by two megapixel camera phones early next year and three to four megapixel camera phones less than a year later, according to Juha Putkiranta, senior vice president of the mobile multimedia and imaging group at Nokia Mobile Phones.
(I also spoke with Putkiranta during the conference and noted that one of the big challenges for network operators will be the ability to transfer large files. I asked about compression and other techniques. He said there simply is no substitute for upgrading cellular networks. That's the solution -- faster networks with new, expensive infrastructure -- for dealing with large files, he told me.)
* Lens makers need to reduce the size of lenses while also increasing the number of pixels. This leads to shrinking the size of pixels, resulting in less light per pixel. This is not a trivial problem.
* Components companies can produce higher quality lenses for camera phones, but this in turn increases costs. Rick writes, "The enhancements already have doubled the bill of materials for a CMOS sensor module, from $5.50 at the VGA level to $10.10 for a megapixel unit, because of more expensive lenses and manufacturing costs."
* There is a significant shortage of lenses but the shortage should end this year as lens makers and CMOS sensor producers increase production.
* Nokia and Samsung are working on software enabling users to make simple edits in video clips instead of having to use a PC for editing before transmitting the video.
* Chip makers are wondering whether camera phones are going to long remain at quarter CIF (Common Intermediate Format), which is acceptable for viewing on videos on regular TV screens. But the move towards high definition television will spark the move to higher (D1) resolutions.
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