I haven't written much about Nextel's camera phones because, well, they don't have any yet! At least, they don't have any you may buy, but that will change this year when it looks like the company will introduce two camera phones.
From Engadget I read about two camera phones (see below, from Engadget), the i860 and the i930, that sport large screens.
I am very interested in seeing how Nextel markets these camera phones. Nextel's primary audience is business users in vertical markets, such as construction, but the company also targets white collar users who want the push-to-talk Direct Connect feature.
Fears, marketing
Many companies are scared witless about the possibility of their employees taking inappropriate photos -- ranging from breaches in security to photos of other employees in states of undress -- and have banned camera phones.
But there's a huge untapped market for camera phones in business -- a market the cellular industry doesn't seem to be exploiting -- and Nextel could be the company to be the leader.
I have been trying to encourage cellular operators and handset vendors to get more proactive in promoting camera phones to businesses, but so far the industry has been very slow to capitalize on the opportunities. Perhaps when there are more one megapixel camera phones there will be more activity.
Year of One Megapixel handsets
Next year probably will be the Year of the One Megapixel Camera Phone in the United States. We'll see a variety of one megapixel handsets introduced by the end of this year in time for the holiday buying season.
However, the mass market for one megapixel camera phones in this country will won't develop until later in 2005 when there are even more handsets and prices drop.
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