Cameraphones - The future
Skip contentThere are undoubtedly many phone users who will continue to think of their handset as a machine for handling voice calls and text messages, with perhaps some personal organiser functions thrown in for good measure, and such people will probably stick to using those models without a camera. At the other extreme, the photographic enthusiast will no doubt criticise the type of camera in a mobile phone as neither good enough nor versatile enough to do everything that they want. Nevertheless, for the majority of casual photographers, who need only a point-and-shoot camera for taking snaps, then the current breed of cameraphones will probably satisfy most of their requirements.
The advance in technology continues, and the trend seems to indicate that cameraphones will develop yet higher picture resolutions. It is also certain that further control over the camera adjustments will be added, so that a merging of the mobile phone and the digital camera would seem to be an inevitable consequence. Already the best cameraphones are affecting the market for low end digital cameras, and it only seems to be a matter of time until there is no longer a need to buy a separate digital camera in order to take high quality photographs.
Cameraphones in Japan and Korea are currently leading the way by offering the best camera specifications available. For example, at the end of 2004 the Samsung SPH-S2300 has a 3.2 megapixel camera with a 3x optical zoom, the Sharp V602SH has a 2 megapixel camera with 2x optical zoom, and the Casio A5406CA offers a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus. Samsung have also announced the introduction of a 5 megapixel cameraphone, which is likely to meet or surpass the current needs of the majority of cameraphone users for some time to come. However, this rapid improvement in cameraphone specifications can do nothing but create a more intense competition war between manufacturers for market share.
While the evolution of the cameraphone may confuse those who are unsure about how many pixels they really need, this situation should have the consequence that the price of many cameraphones will eventually start to fall.
