By Ron Eggers

August 13, 2004 — The Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK) of the Taiwan government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is projecting that by 2007 that more three- and four-megapixel digital cameras will be incorporated in mobile phones than in digital still cameras. Because of that, said the study, phone cameras may become more popular than digital still cameras.

The study goes on to say that the expected rapid increase in digital phone cameras is due to the higher-resolution, less expensive CMOS image sensors that are used in phone cameras. A similar study by the LG Economic Research Institute (LGERI) (Korea) projects that mobile camera phones are expected to gobble up 40 percent of the digital camera market by 2008. Currently, several microchip manufacturers are trying to develop mobile phone camera sensors with resolution of up to six megapixels.

Despite their popularity, the growing use of mobile phone cameras has caused some problems. In fact, it's forced several school districts, including the Palm Beach County School Board to prohibit their possession on school campuses. In the same vane, the inappropriate use of mobile camera phones has been restricted at some public beaches, while the cameras themselves have been banned in countries like Saudi Arabia.

(Contact Ron Eggers at Newswatch@earthlink.net)