Strategy Analytics: 257 million camera phones, 68 million digital cameras shipped in 2004

Strategy Analytics' "2004 Global Camera Phone report" says 257 million camera phones were shipped worldwide last year, comprising 38 percent of handset sales.  In 2003, 84 million camera phones were sold, comprising 16 percent of handset sales.

This compares to 68 million digital cameras that were shipped around the world in 2004.  In 2003, 49 million digital cameras were sold.

The top camera phone handset manufacturers for 2004 were:  Nokia (18 percent), Motorola (17 percent) and Samsung (13 percent).

Digital camera market diminishing

A noteworthy finding of the report is "The digital still camera market is running out of steam," according to Chris Ambrosio, director of Strategy Analytics' global wireless practice.

Ambrosio says, "Vendors such as Kodak, Canon and Fuji will find growth harder to achieve in 2006.  Camera phones will eventually capture 15 percent of the low-end digital still camera market by 2010, while attempts to sell households in developed markets a second or third device will be restricted by the ubiquity of multi-megapixel camera phones."

The report also says, "VGA sensors will still be the sweet spot for camera phones in 2005, but vendors will use pixel counts as a differentiator in higher product tiers.  These 'Pixel Wars' will drive multi-megapixel handset demand to 3 in 10 sales worldwide in 2005.

"Removable memory will be standard issue on camera phones by the end of 2007 but the wireless connectivity landscape for camera phones (e.g., USB, WLAN/WiFi, Infrared, Bluetooth, etc.) will be fragmented, requiring printer and other ecosystem players to support a wide range of solutions based on regional market dynamics."