Today's focus: What are people doing with camera phones?

By Keith Shaw
Thu 1/27/2005 6:10 PM

In a recently released survey, online photo service provider
Snapfish revealed that 56% of those surveyed (500 Americans)
said they think camera phones will replace digital and film
cameras within the next two decades.

Despite the big 20-year prediction cycle (won't we have flying
cars and time machines by then?), the survey offers some
additional data regarding the use of camera phones by consumers
these days.

For example, 62% of camera phone users are storing their images
on their phones rather than using a storage or sharing option.
Snapfish argues that this proves that getting photos off the
phone so people can do what they want with them remains one of
the biggest issues for camera phone users. While that rings
somewhat true, I'd also argue that image quality on the phones
is another driving reason - there's no reason to really transfer
the photo to make a print if the end result is a lousy photo.
Also, since most camera phones don't have memory card slots
(yet), transferring the photos from the phone to a PC or an
online service is a really big hassle. With more camera phones
coming out with new memory card slots (especially Trans-Flash
memory cards), storing and transferring photos will become much,
much easier.

In the Snapfish survey, poor picture quality was the biggest
gripe about camera phones (61%); also cited was the high cost of
sharing (31%) and difficulties in transferring photos to an
online service or PC (25%). Only 22% of camera phones are
printing their images, despite interest from 73% of those
surveyed. Again, photo print quality (80%) and price (63%) were
cited as the most important criteria for printing photos from a
camera phone.

New camera phone features that got the highest interest included
zoom (52%), automatic transfer of photos to a PC (45%) and a
flash (42%). And for the most part, people are taking photos
with their camera phones in pretty much the same places that
they take photos with digital or film cameras: at home (75%),
family gatherings (58%) or on vacation (45%).

More interesting were some of the new places people were taking
photos with their camera phones: at work (40%), sporting events
(33%), on dates (17%) and at the birth of a new child (13%). The
survey didn't say whether the photos were taken in the actual
delivery room, or after in the recovery room. And what kind of
photos are people taking with camera phones while on a date? Are
people taking photos of their blind dates so they can show to
friends later?

Anyway, the survey has me intrigued to poll the readership on
the current state of camera phones. Do you have one yet? What
have you been taking pictures of? Do you transfer the photos off
the phone, either to an online service, another phone (via
Multimedia Messaging Service) or e-mail address? Do you print
the photos?

Send e-mail to , and if you feel like it,
tell me what we'll see first in the next 20 years - a good
camera phone or flying cars.