Reiter's Camera Phone Report

InfoTrends survey reports GenZ frequently takes camera phone photos

An InfoTrends press release about its new camera phones study, “U.S. Camera Phone End-User Survey Research,” provides a little bit of information, that’s not a big surprise, about the market.

The release says “camera phone functionality is becoming increasingly attractive to young consumers in the 13 – 24 year old age demographic.  A significant number of this GenZ population indicated that they send or receive text messages on a daily basis and nearly the same percentage use their cameras for taking pictures.”

InfoTrends says that only 15 percent of consumers (in all age groups surveyed, I assume) consider camera phones to be their primary camera as opposed to 65 percent who consider digital cameras as “their primary picture taking device.”

Not enough features for me

The research group says, “Satisfaction ratings were high for camera phone features and ease-of-use (taking pictures and videos), but somewhat lower for print quality and the cost of sharing/receiving photos.”

It’s interesting to me that the survey indicated high ratings for features.  Personally, I find most camera phones don’t offer several very useful capabilities, such as being able to set exposure levels or an optical zoom.

MIPC study reports 40+ percent of Japanese print camera phone photos

The Japanese — especially women — are printing more camera phone photos than you might imagine, according to a study conducted by the Mobile Imaging and Printing Consortium (MIPC).  However, printing and wanting to print doesn’t necessarily mean people understand how to adjust the resolution of their photos!

The MIPC was established to promote printing of photos using a variety of methods (such as Bluetooth, infrared, WiFi).  The organization’s survey says more than 40 percent of people surveyed said they had printed camera phone photos. 

More than 50 percent of working women and grandmothers said they had printed camera phone photos.

Digital camera versus camera phone

In addition, more than 50 percent of people surveyed said they used their camera phones several times a day.  Twenty percent of female high school students said they used their camera phones every day.

Forty two percent of the survey’s respondents said they use a digital camera “for important photos of special occasions and major events, and a camera phone for snapshots."  The MIPC release notes, “The results point to a difference in the ways digital cameras and camera phones are used depending on circumstances.”

This certainly isn’t a surprise.  But we’re also seeing — and will continue to see — people using their camera phones with increasing frequency instead of digital cameras as the quality of camera phone images improves.

Sad lack of knowledge

One interesting, but rather sad, aspect of the survey is that more than 60 percent of people surveyed said the most frequently used photo size was “standby display” (240 x 320) and VGA (640 x 480).  The majority of users take photos with the default resolution.

In other words, the respondents indicated either they didn’t know about changing the resolution or didn’t care.  I strongly suspect it’s the former.

The press release says that with increasing camera phone resolutions (especially in Japan where three megapixels to five megapixels aren’t unusual — unlike in the United Sates), “many users have expressed dissatisfaction over print-image quality when taking photos using the ‘standby display’ and ‘VGA’ size settings.”

More education needed

Well, duh!  Of course they don’t like the quality of photos at these two low resolutions.

I don’t know how camera phone education is in Japan.  But cellular operators in the U.S. generally have done a terrible job of educating consumers about how to best use their camera phones (among many other phone features).

The MIPC release says, “It is believed that a vital key to increasing the print rate of camera phone photos will be increasing user awareness of how to change photo-size settings to enable higher image resolution compared with default settings, and how to adjust other camera settings.”

For years I have been complaining about the operators’ lack of customer education.  And I will continue to do so.  The operators don’t seem to understand is the more customers understand how to use their phones for different applications, the more those applications will be used.  Another duh.

GfK reports 78 million camera phones sold in first half of 2007 in Asia

Camera phones are booming across 12 countries in Asia, says a detailed GfK Group press release.

The GfK Group’s “2007 Mid-Year Pan Asian Mobile Phone and Digital Imaging” report says more than 78 million camera phones were sold worth almost $18 billion from January 2007 – June 2007.  The number of phones increased 44 percent and the dollar amount increased 28 percent compared to the same period in 2006.

The 12–country market generated sales of slightly more than 149 million for all cellular phones, an increase of 39 percent compared to the same period last year.  Sales in that half-year 2007 period represented almost $22.5 billion compared to 2006 and a four percent increase from 2005 to 2006, the report says.

The report covers Asian market conditions for three major types of phones:  Handsets with monochrome displays, color displays but no camera and color display with a camera.

More Asian statistics

The release says, “In South Korea, relatively flat sales values are a result of a mature market, with large declines in sales of monochrome units (-79 percent) and color handsets with no camera (-71 percent), and falling unit values in color camera handsets. 

“In contrast, Thailand’s growth in volume and sales value is occurring in the monochrome market (61 percent volume and 31 percent value increases), and the color camera segment has only grown 3 percent on volume over the same period in 2006.”

There are many more statistics in the release.

Ofcom "Communications Market Report" says U.K. users most aware of camera on phone

A big (330–page) U.K. government report on the state of wired and wireless communications contains a wealth of information on a wide range of technologies and applications, including a bit of good news about camera phones.

The Office of Communications’ (Ofcom) “Communications Market Report” (available in three sections plus summaries) says that based on surveys the non-voice feature of cellular phones that consumers are most aware of (not including SMS) is the camera.  Sixty five percent of cellular users are aware their phone has a camera and 41 percent have used the camera (see below).

The report notes the percentage of awareness is likely to increase as consumers replace their phones with newer models and as greater percentages of phones include cameras.  Currently, 84 percent of handsets sold in the U.K. incorporate a camera.

Why are cameras No. 1?

Why are cellular subscribers most aware of the camera even though other features (such as games) were introduced earlier?  Ofcom speculates, “It is interesting to note that the awareness of the camera feature is highest, followed by games and alarms, which have been available for longer as mobile phone functions. 

“This may be because the camera is a physical part of the handset, which is more difficult to overlook than a menu item or because there has been more publicity about camera function than other features.”

The report notes the majority of consumers who were surveyed said the features on their phones didn’t affect their use of dedicated devices.  However, Ofcom reports that a “significant minority” say their use of dedicated devices has decreased because of features on handsets.

Indeed, 38 percent of consumers surveyed say their use of regular cameras has decreased because of the cameras on the phones (see below) — as well as decreases in the use of other standalone devices because of cellular features.  Moreover this could be just the beginning of less use of dedicated devices.

Ofcom says, “As the level of sophistication of these features on mobile phones has only recently approached that of basic level specialist devices. the impact has probably not yet been felt in the replacement lifecycle of the separate device.”

Not all good news for new features

Ofcome has bad news, however, for proponents of mobile television (as I am).  Mobile televison didn’t fare as well — to say the least — as camera phone awareness and use.  Check out the article I’ll posted later tonight on my “Reiter’s Mobile TV Report.”

Don't forget — if you’re at all interested in the U.K. telecommunications environment — Internet, WiFi, cellular, broadcast/cable television, etc. — be sure to check out the entire Ofcom report.  MocoNews.net has a brief summary of the report and BBC News has a detailed article about the report’s findings plus two video reports.

Better late than never: In-Stat report says there's money in camera phone moblogs

With a headline of “Mobile Blogs Offer New Opportunity for Cellular Operators to Monetize Camera Phones,” the press release by market research company In-Stat seems a bit behind the curve.

The release says, “The abundance of Websites dedicated to moblogging and photoblogging indicates there is a growing interest in combining social networking with camera phone technology.”

In-Stat says moblogs create opportunities for software developers “to focus on developing a series of mobile Internet applications for a greatly desired market segment.”  The firm says there will be more than one billion camera phones worldwide by the end of this year.  Other firms have said the one billion mark was passed a year or two ago.

In-Stat also says more than 60 percent of cellular phone subscribers in the United States have camera phones, compared to 40 percent in 2006.

A better press release

Although proclaiming the value of moblogs in 2007 is years late, to be fair to In-Stat, the title of its research report is “Camera Phones and Social Networking – A New Global Focus.”  And, I haven’t read the report and perhaps there’s a great deal of research about in financial dynamics of moblogs and social networks — although it’s not easy to make money with either medium!

As a wireless data consultant, I help companies with business development.  If I were writing the In-Stat press release I would not only include more useful financial information but also tie moblogs to social networking and discuss the social importance and ramifications so the report is more current.

Too many company public relations executives don’t seem to realize that the more the press release has new information for journalists, the more widely it’s likely to be distributed.  I write press releases as well as a variety of other corporate marketing documents, weblogs, etc. and some companies don’t understand the value of giving readers more than a tidbit of useful data.

Update (8/25/07): The Guardian on moblogs, social networking

As I was perusing The Guardian, one of my favorite resources for mobile and technology news, I noticed a detailed article about opportunities for the wireless industry for social networking.

The Guardian says cellular operators are concerned that with monthly flat rate pricing (more common in the United States than overseas, actually), subscribers will use the network as merely a “big dumb pipe” for accessing the Internet and marginalize them as the ISPs have been cut out of revenues from content.

Some cellular operators, such as 3 in the U.K., have established their own social networking services.  3’s SeeMeTV application enables uses to upload video clips to share as well as getting paid for them.  Also, SeeMeTV has spawned Moko, a social networking site costing 2.50 pounds ($5) per month, the article says.

Building businesses now

One consultant says cellular operators should seriously consider wireless-enabling existing well known social networking sites, such as Facebook.  Frédéric Huet, a director at Greenwich Consulting, says in The Guardian, "I would not be too dismissive of data revenues.

“If the mobile operators can start increasing take-up of data services they will increase revenues for quite a few years before commoditisation and price competition sees those revenues erode again.  By then the operators will be in a position to offer other services such as mobile advertising.

"The trick is to start building an audience now and the mobile phone operators are starting to understand that."

The article notes the here in the U.S. AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless already offer access to Facebook.

NPD reports five percent of U.S. camera phones two megapixels or more in Q2 2007

The market research firm NPD Group reports that five percent of cellular phones sold with cameras in the second quarter of 2007 in the United States “boasted” a resolution of at least two megapixels, according to the firm’s press release.

I wouldn’t “boast” about such a low percentage.  However, this represents a 68 increase in sales compared to the first quarter, so perhaps this percentage of higher resolution handsets will continue to increase.

The press release didn’t discuss the percentage of sales of cellular phones with VGA or 1.3 megapixel cameras, but the sooner the cellular operators stop selling VGA cameras the better. 

Kill VGA!

As I’ve written many times previously, although there are a few — a very few — camera phones that can shoot okay photos at VGA, you really need at least 1.3 megapixels to have a fighting chance to produce a good photo….and you have to know what you’re doing (good lighting, steady hand, close up shot, etc.).

The sooner the operators drop phones with low resolution — and low quality (resolution isn’t the only criterion for a good quality image) — the sooner consumers will voice fewer complaints about “crappy camera phone pictures.”  Of course, cellular operators could provide more tips about how to take better camera phone photos, as I tried to do in Sprint’s camera phone weblog, but that’s deceased, unfortunately.

NPD also reports that 45 percent of phones sold in the second quarter could play music, an 11 percent increase since the first quarter, and 11 percent of phones sold were considered “smartphones,” an increase of 32 percent.

Most purchase under $50 phones

And while many of you reading this weblog are members of the wireless digerati and use some of the most advanced handsets, it’s useful to realize that more than half of phones “purchased” were $50 or less in Q2.  Twenty eight percent were free and the same percentage cost less than $50, NPD says.

While I pontificate about the $750 Nokia N95 five megapixel camera phone available from Nokia U.S., back in the real world of the mass market, NPD says only 11 percent of phones were more than $150 and four percent more than $250.

During the second quarter the best selling phones in the U.S. were:  Motorola, 32 percent; Samsung, 18 percent; LG, 17 percent; Nokia, 10 percent and Sanyo, four percent.

2007 sales predictions

Overall, 33 million phones were sold in the second quarter, a decrease of almost 17 percent compared to the previous quarter.  However, NPD says the second quarter is typically a slower period.

The firm predicts $2.4 billion worth of phones will be sold for 2007, an increase of 14 percent compared to 2006.

comScore survey reports camera important when selecting operator, phone

An e-mail survey of U.S. consumers who have cellular phones shows a camera is relatively important consideration when selecting a phone, but SMS is more important, according to the press release by comScore Networks.

The survey, conducted by comScore from October 25, 2006 to November 1, 2006, produced more than 1,000 responses.  The respondents are divided into three segments:  Cellular Generation, Transitioners and Adult Adopters.

The Cellular Generation, 18 to 24 years old, "grew up with cell phone awareness, experiencing cell phones as a part of their everyday lives," comScore says.  The Transitioners, 25 to 34, grew up as cellular phones "began to infiltrate everyday life during their teen years and early adulthood."

The Adult Adopters, 35 years old and older, were "not exposed to cell phones until adulthood.  Adult Adopters tend to have the most functional view of cell phones, with many requiring just the basics and showing limited interest in emerging technologies."

(I'm an Adult Adopter by age but a Cellular Generation by habits.  Actually, if younger age equals greater use of cellular features, I'm probably in a Fetus Generation!)

Survey results

It's no surprise the Cellular Generation was more interested in more cellular features and it's also no surprise that SMS came out on top when selecting a cellular operator and a phone (see below).

As for camera phone features, MMS was of "high importance" when selecting a cellular operator for 18 percent of both the Cellular Generation and Transitioners, and eight percent for Adult Adopters.

A camera phone was of "high importance" when picking a cellular phone for 42 percent of the Cellular Generation, 37 percent of Transitioners and 30 percent of Adult Adopters.

It's interesting that when selecting a cellular phone, respondents in all three categories said an MP3 player was significantly less important than a camera.  There are big debates and lots of research reports by analysts over the importance of music versus a camera.

More than 750 videos uploaded to VeektheVote during election day

More than 750 consumer videos were uploaded to Veek the Vote 2006 during Election Day, according to the Veeker.com press release (no direct link, unfortunately).

Yes, I know this is late, but I've been busy and I wanted to make sure I posted some important older news.  There will be more posts to come soon.

As I wrote in early November, the video sharing service Veeker.com and YouthNoise teamed up to solicit voting-related videos from camera phones (although regular videos would be accepted, too).  The press release says videos were received from such states as Virginia, Missouri, California, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Florida and Ohio.

As I previously wrote, those mid-term elections would be the most "camera phoned" ever, and that was the case.  With increasing percentages of camera phones incorporating video recording capabilities, each succeeding election is going to be the most camera phoned.

Flickr debuts "most popular cameras" on site, including camera phones

The uber photo sharing site Flickr has created a page that lists the most popular cameras and camera phones (see below) used to take the images uploaded to the site.

The information is based on the meta data embedded in photos by the camera or camera phone. 

Three Sony Ericsson and two Nokia camera phones are listed as the most popular.  However, camera phones pose more problems than digital still cameras when trying to extract information.

Data mining

Here's what Flickr says about its method:

"These graphs show the number of Flickr members who have uploaded at least one photo with a particular camera on a given day over the last year.

"The graphs are 'normalized,' which is a fancy way of saying that they automatically correct for the fact that more people join Flickr each day: the graph moving up or down indicates a change in the camera's popularity relative to all other cameras used by Flickr members.

"The graphs are only accurate to the extent that we can automatically detect the camera used to take the photo (about 2/3rds of the time).  That is not usually possible with cameraphone photos and cameraphones are therefore under-represented."       

Discussions already

Already there are discussions on the Web about the accuracy of the data and I'm sure these discussions will continue.  Good.  I'm sure Flickr is working on ways to provide as accurate a representation as possible.

In the meantime, the information is grist for many camera phone analysts who will happily, I'm sure, help publicize the data.  Obviously, a grain boulder of salt is required when pondering the data until we know exactly how accurate it is.

CEA says nine percent of photos captured by camera phones

A Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) study says camera phone photos comprise nine percent of images captured, twice as much from 2005, according to Digital Camera Review.

The study, "Sharing and Storing Photos and Video II," reports that of the number of people who consider a camera phone as their primary camera, 47 percent also own a digital still camera.  So far, people seem to be switching between their camera phone and digital camera -- taking photos at different times with different cameras.

However, this might change.  The article says Tim Herbert, senior director of market research at CEA, predicts that as camera phones improve with three megapixel (and better) resolution, better storage and additional features, more people might use only camera phones for taking photos.

The CEA says the biggest area for growth in the digital still camera market will be products with six to seven megapixels.  Digital camera manufacturers will, of course, continue to add features, such as image stabilization, better lenses, wireless options and photo/video sharing.

(I wasn't able to access the CEA's Web site when I posted this to link directly to the association's press release.  I'll try again later.)