Almost 20 percent of American Netizens own cell phones equipped with embedded digital cameras as of 2004’s end, says a new study by market research firm InfoTrends/CAP.
"The introduction of several new megapixel handsets in 2005 will set off the next big wave of buying," said InfoTrends/CAP consultant Jill Aldort, announcing the study findings. "And higher resolutions will drive more printing from camera phones, which is good news for printing vendors."
It could also prove more bad news for law enforcement, as such cell phones inevitably get into the hands of voyeurs who continue thriving upon such sexually-oriented captures in spite of numerous efforts to stop them.
Those efforts include not only several state laws either enacted or under consideration, but a new federal law as well. Almost unnoticed at the time, President Bush signed the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act in December, prohibiting on federal property what the laws of 35 states already prohibit – photographing people in compromising positions without their consent.
"There are too many people who have been embarrassed and hurt by this invasion of their privacy,” said U.S. Rep. Michael G. Oxley (R-Ohio) when Bush signed the bill. “We are finally bringing the law up to date with technology." Others said the new federal law would also give a working model for those states who don’t yet have their own, state-specific such law yet.
“The widespread availability of low-cost, high-resolution cameras has lead to an increase in the number of high-profile cases of ‘video-voyeurism’ all over our country,” said U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), in a floor speech when he brought the bill to the upper chamber. “Reports of women being secretly videotaped through their clothing at shopping malls, amusement parks, and other public places are far too common.”
InfoTrends/CAP’s “2004 Camera Phone End User Survey” said 27 percent of consumers who don’t own camera phones now are “highly interested” in owning one as their next cell phone, while two out of three current camera phone owners use the camera regularly for picture taking.
The survey also showed over 40 percent of current camera phone owners have printed their images. "Camera phone print volume will continue to increase,” Aldort said, “as manufacturers introduce higher resolution and better quality optics, as well as options like Bluetooth and removable memory to make image transfer easier."
Earlier, InfoTrends/CAP said projected worldwide camera phone shipments would hit over 860 million units in 2009 and account by then to 89 percent of all mobile phone handsets shipped, noting that 178 million such units shipped in 2004.
“Society is moving into an era of ubiquitous imaging that offers the ability to capture, store, send, print, and view an image anywhere,” said InfoTrends/CAP director Jeff Hayes. “We believe mobile imaging will have the kind of impact that e-mail had on document communications in the 1990s. We project that the total number of images captured on camera phones will reach 227 billion by 2009, exceeding the number of photos taken on digital still cameras and film cameras combined.”
