Camera Phones Develop

Dig, if you will, the picture phone. The wireless industry seems to have nothing else on its mind. In fact, carriers spent $61 million on advertising for photo messaging services in the last quarter of 2002, three times more than they spent hawking any other mobile application. According to research firm Telephia, carriers are justified in banking their commercial data hopes on JPEG images. “The main thing with camera phones is penetration is low, but interest is high,” said Kanishka Agarwal, director of product management for mobile devices at Telephia.

Photo messaging is an open market for carriers — a new service with mass-market appeal that everyone doesn't already have, Agarwal pointed out. And because of its bandwidth requirement, picture messaging is an excellent way to get much-needed bit-traffic over the network. As of the end of 2002, only one of every 100 wireless subscribers had a camera phone, a statistic that increased to one of every 20 among wireless data users. But demand is high, especially among the younger set, an opportunity carriers are likely to pursue even further.