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January 27, 2005– InfoTrends/CAP Ventures released a camera phone ownership study today. Their research indicates that nearly 20 percent of Internet users in the United States owned a camera phone in 2004, as compared with 3 percent in 2003. 27 percent of respondents who did not own a camera phone were highly interested in buying one as their next cell phone. The most highly sought feature on camera phones continues to be increased image quality. Many manufacturers are improving their models accordingly.
"The introduction of several new megapixel handsets in 2005 will set off the next wave of buying," said Jill Aldort, consultant at InfoTrends/CAP Ventures. "Higher resolutions will drive more printing from camera phones, which is good news for printing vendors."
About 65 percent of camera phone owners use the camera function regularly. Of those users, the study reported that 40 percent actually print their photographs. This figure is higher than another recent study published by Snapfish, who claimed that only 22 percent of camera phone owners printed their pictures. The marketing research firm remains optimistic.
"Camera phone print volume will continue to increase as manufacturers introduce higher resolution and better quality optics, as well as options like Bluetooth and removable memory to make image transfer easier," Aldort said.