Strategy Analytics Global Wireless Practice, a global research and consulting firm, has released a new market forecast report, “Strategic Perspectives on Cellular Camera Phones,” which says that 16 million camera phones will be sold worldwide in 2002, then grow “strongly” to 147 million in 2007. And although 22 million digital still cameras will be sold worldwide this year, their slower growth rate of 34 percent will result in “only” 95 million sales in 2007, the market report predicts.
Strategy Analytics also predicts that one in five cellular handsets sold in 2007 will contain an embedded camera. What’s more, high prices and relatively large form factors will inhibit initial diffusion of camera phones in Western Europe, according to the report. “Strategic Perspectives on Cellular Camera Phones” also finds that expansion camera modules are short-term solutions for current limited, niche demand; and camera PDAs, accounting for 6 percent of global PDA sales in 2007, will be less prominent than camera phones.
“Camera phones will be an essential tool in driving handset replacement rates in the next five years, especially in sluggish markets such as Western Europe,” Neil Mawston, Senior Analyst with the Strategy Analytics Global Wireless Practice, said.
Chris Ambrosio, director of Global Wireless Practice, added that camera phones outside Japan and Korea would remain high-cost, moderate volume products through next year. Shipment volume will improve in 2004 when camera modules begin to commoditize, and when handset vendors begin to benefit from economies of scale, he added.