PMA Camera Phone Report

PMA released an impressive report today about camera phone use, specifically about printing from camera phones. With many companies’ hopes and dreams set on the possible print volume from camera phones this article has a darker outlook. With the average pictures captured by people with camera phones equally less than 20 shots something has to change. In Fotolia’s opinion image quality needs and ease of use still needs to improve before the mass market uses a camera phone instead of their regular digital camera.

PMA Data Watch: Understanding cameraphone users

According to the soon to be released 2005 PMA U.S. Consumer Photo
Buying Report, 10.2 percent of households owned cameraphones by the end of 2004. As more images are captured using cameraphones, these images are of growing interest to wireless service providers, retailers, and others in related markets. The PMA consumer study provides insight into the profile of a cameraphone owner and their cameraphone usage.

Who's using cameraphones? The demographics of these households are similar to that of digital camera households. Above average rates of ownership are exhibited by households headed by persons with higher education degrees and households with children, and ownership increases with income. So not surprisingly, 65 percent of cameraphone owners also owned a digital camera.

The average age of cameraphone users, which was 36 years, fell below that of camera owners in 2004. Also, unlike digital cameras, cameraphones appear to be evenly adopted by males and females early in their life cycle.

What are they doing with their cameraphone? In 2004, 27 percent of cameraphone households did not take any pictures with their phone. Of the 73 percent that did take pictures; they averaged about 21 shots during the year. Less people chose to e-mail these pictures or transmit them wirelessly in 2004 than in 2003 -- 36 compared to 46 percent. The percent of households that viewed their pictures on their cameraphone screen increased from 83 to 93 percent and the percent that printed grew from 6 to 11 percent. Out of the 11 percent of households that made prints, 83 percent chose to e-mail their images and print at home, and 10 percent e-mailed and printed at retail. Only 2 percent of households that printed cameraphone images used a kiosk.

Why aren't more users printing? Not having a need to print or just wanting to view images on the screen topped the list of reasons why cameraphone users did not print. Perhaps not all people would lack interest though if the process was easier and the prints were better. Many households also cited quality issues as a deterrent to printing or they thought the process was too complicated.

For retailers
Some of the obstacles preventing consumers from printing are out of the hands of retailers, such as product design or processes for online uploading provided by the wireless handset suppliers. Retailers that offer prints from cameraphones, however, can try to simplify the printing process on their end and educate consumers on their options.

Before investing in cameraphone print technology, look at the profiles and demographics of your customer base to see if it is right for your business. A small percentage of cameraphone households printed images at retail in 2004. This number may increase as technology evolves that makes it easier to print, such as wireless transmission directly to kiosks or more cameraphones equipped with memory cards.

Something else to consider is that consumer awareness of retail printing methods for cameraphone images could grow more quickly than consumer awareness of retail printing for digital camera images. More households are now familiar with the process of printing digital pictures at retail, and are increasingly choosing to print their digital camera photos at retail.

Finally, while it is difficult to predict the future volume demand for prints from cameraphones, cameraphone owners are likely to also own a digital camera. It could be assumed, if they are going to make prints from their cameraphones at retail, that store will most likely receive their digital camera business, too. Accommodating cameraphone printing is just one more way to satisfy more customers and gain their loyalty.