Your cell phone can already send and receive e-mail, handle pager-like text messages, play games, and surf the Internet (slowly), along with relaying plain old phone calls. Its newest talent could be doubling as a digital camera.
This function is the latest add-on from cellular communications companies beckoning us back into stores for brand new cell phones. The combination cell phone/camera has begun to hit the U.S. market, with commercials running on TV, and the early signs are that this could be the next "killer app" the cellular industry has been waiting for.
In Japan, more than 5 million people carry cell phones with embedded digital cameras, say analysts with Strategy Analytica. A growing selection of combo cell phone cameras are marketed in Japan. Fuji sells a combo device that adds an MP3 player. A Sharp combo unit even supports video.
North Americans are a little slower to latch onto such gadgets, partly--in this case--because the domestic network capability had to catch up. But a selection is emerging, and Strategy Analytica expects that by 2007, worldwide sales of camera phones will exceed those of the dedicated digital camera.
Networks Get ReadyAt least five major cell phone manufacturers have recently released or announced phones with digital photo capabilities. The four--Sony/Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, and Handspring--take different approaches to the combination, but all add the same basic new function to cell phones: You can take relatively low resolution digital photographs (640 by 480 is the common best resolution) and send them to other phones, or to e-mail accounts, directly from the combo phone.
Two major U.S. wireless carriers, AT&T Wireless and Sprint PCS, have introduced service plans and offer phones that allow their customers to take and send digital photos. It's a sample of the enhanced services that are emerging as the carriers begin the move towards next-generation wireless coverage. Of course, if you're interested in snapping and sending by cell phone, you need to make sure your carrier supports the function.
The AT&T Wireless plan, called mMode Pix, makes use of the Sony/Ericsson T68i wireless phone ($200) and matching MCA-20 CommuniCam ($130) in conjunction with an AT&T Wireless GSM voice calling plan. Customers must be on the AT&T GSM/GPRS network in order to send photos. Right now, that network includes coverage in less than half of the top 100 U.S. markets. AT&T doesn't charge extra for sending photos; they're simply sent as data that counts as part of the total monthly data allowance of 2MB.
Sprint's plan structure is the same, with photos again counting as part of the 2MB transmission allowed each month before additional charges are imposed. In the U.S., Sprint offers two telephones with photo capability: The Samsung N400 ($200) and Samsung A500 ($300) each accept a Samsung camera attachment sold separately for $100. In all of these standard offerings, 640 by 480 is the maximum resolution, a quality that's fine for digital snapshots but far below the resolution offered by even mid-range dedicated digital cameras.
How many photos you could transmit within the 2MB allowance varies with the size of the picture. However, the carriers say that a compressed photo ranges from 10KB to 75KB, depending on resolution, so you could send, on average, something like 50 pictures before incurring additional charges.
Samsung markets other models in Japan. Also in use there are other cell/camera combo devices that have not yet entered the U.S. market.
Multifunction HandheldsTwo other cell phone/camera combinations are available to U.S. customers. A high-end option is Nokia's 9290 Communicator, priced at $599. This phone/PDA/Internet terminal hybrid accepts images from the Nokia EyeQ camera (an additional $150). Unlike other cameras that attach to the cell phone by cable or accessory port, the 9290 and EyeQ communicate via an infrared link--a link the camera can also use to send 640 by 480 images directly to a PC or PDA.
Another combo device is available from Handspring, in the form of the Treo 270 and Treo 300. Both personal digital assistants have cell phone circuitry built in. Based on the Palm OS, the Treo units combine PDA tasks, cell phone functions, and the expansion capability of the Springboard port. That port can accept the EyeModule camera (about $50) for taking low-resolution images that you can send to a PC during synchronization or shared via cell phone connection.
Slow But SteadyWill camera/cell phone combinations succeed in pushing cell phone users to spend more time on the air? Strategy Analytica predicts that 16 million camera phones will be sold worldwide in 2002.
"Camera phones will be an essential tool in driving handset replacement rates in the next five years," says Neil Mawston, a senior analyst with the Strategy Analytics Global Wireless Practice. The research organization expects initial growth to be in Asia.
The analysts expect the market to hit 147 million--20 percent of the total cell phone market--sold in 2007. It could be the next boost to cell phone service, succeeding where Short Messaging Service has lagged, the analysts say. SMS may be the application of the very young, with their Gameboy-toughened thumbs, but marrying digital photography and cell phones may again prove the adage about a picture being worth a thousand words.
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