PMA Data Watch: Camera phone vs. digital camera use among U.S. households
According to the Photo Industry 2010: Review and Forecast Report camera phone penetration is catching up to that of digital camera penetration. In 2009, 78 percent of U.S. households owned digital cameras, compared with 62 percent of households who owned camera phones. There are more camera phones in use as households are more likely to own more camera phones than digital cameras.
Camera phones, however, still remain secondary devices to digital cameras for purposes of taking and sharing photos. The number of pictures taken with a typical camera phone were 12 times fewer than the number of pictures taken with a typical digital camera, in 2009. Low utilization of cameras on phones implies dissatisfaction among users. Not surprisingly, dissatisfaction is highest among users of low-resolution camera phones. Overall, few people are impressed with their camera phone’s performance – only 18 percent. Satisfaction is higher among users of 3 megapixel or higher resolution units. Camera phones with that level of resolution, however, currently represent a small share of the devices in use.
It is clear the first step towards encouraging camera phone use is more resolution. The level of resolution causing most camera buyers to shift from film cameras to digital cameras could be a clue as to just how much resolution exactly is needed for picture taking with camera phones to gain momentum. Digital camera sales clearly overtook film camera sales in 2004, when the majority of cameras sold had resolution of 4-million pixels or higher. Camera phones are not expected to catch up with the highest resolution cameras any time soon; but we should see their use increase significantly once the resolution of most mainstream units surpasses 4-million to 5-million pixels.
