Newly published research from M:Metrics and Lyra Advisory Services show that camera phones are fast becoming the most popular image capturing devices in the world. No surprise then that photo messaging usage is also increasing. Texting still rules by alomost a 3x factor but the gap is closing fast when you consider that cameraphones have been widely available for about five years. With over 50% of market share in Europe and over 850 million units shipped this year phone makers are enjoying a windfall.

Lyra Research says that "Camera Phones Outnumber Film and Digital Cameras Combined." Not only have they become the dominant mobile device in under five years of general usage, but the 850 million units shipped in 2006 are expected to incrase to 1.5 billion in 2010. No other device, even the cell phone or DVD player has increased market share so fast. Moreso, this trend is expected to accelerate.

"We're still in the early stages of market development for mobile imaging. Picture quality is still immature, and market penetration has largely been supply-side driven," said Hoffenberg. "But camera phone picture quality will improve substantially over the next several years, upstream transmission bandwidth will increase, and consumers will become increasingly familiar with the incredible inherent benefit of wireless connectivity for images." 

Following right behind, the new "M:Metrics: Captured by Cameraphones" report states that camerphone ownership has grown to 50% across some European markets and though photo messaging has grown by around a 22% average across surveyed markets, the figures are double that for people with higher resolution (1 Mega Pixel +) devices.  

The above results when broken down by region also showed some emerging trends. Perhaps the most important one being that though texting/SMS'ing continues to lead in terms of mobile based activity the gap is shrinking fast. Right now it seems to be about three times as popular. Usage of personal e-mail and ringtone/wallpaper downloading has fallen towards the bottom indicating they will longer be cash cows for mobile content providers as before. Interesting to also note, that work related e-mail activity also ranks towards the bottom? Does that spell hope for the smartphone/pda market or are users still seeing cellphones as personal devcies and not willing to merge the two activities together?

Via: Tekrati Research

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