Consumers want cameras on their phones

prepaid camera phones are hot, but just how hot are they? According to a Strategy Analytics report, hotter than you might imagine. Turns out, consumers want a camera more than any other add-on phone feature, and are willing to pay the most for its inclusion. Given the prevalence of photo sharing and social networking sites like flickr, Photo Bucket, MySpace, and Facebook, just to name a few, this trend makes perfect sense. People want to capture the moment and share it with others, and this is eminently attainable with a cellular phone. It appears that the device manufacturers have known this for a while. It’s almost a rarity nowadays to see a phone released without a camera. Even Research In Motion added a camera to its newest BlackBerry, the Bold, despite many corporations requesting it not be included. The survey covered 2,800 cellular phone owners in America and Western Europe.

“Strategy Analytics research shows that over 60% of all respondents would be willing to pay extra for a quality camera on their mobile device,” commented Chris Schreiner, Senior User Experience Analyst at Strategy Analytics. “This desire for imaging features prevails across all age ranges in both regions.”

Consumers also displayed a willingness to pay for a video camera, music player, and removable memory cards.]]>