Cameraphones boost digicam sales

Contrary to received wisdom cameraphones are not killing off the digital camera industry and may in fact be boosting sales.

Analysts at IDC have spent the past year studying the two markets and found that those who owned cameraphones were more likely to purchase a digital camera having tried the technology.

According to IDC's Mobile Imaging Survey the poor quality of cameraphones is driving adoption of more high quality digital cameras.

The report noted that the evidence for this comes from the lack of pictures being processed. Last year one cameraphone picture a month was being printed to keep, but this year that has fallen to one every three months.

"Home is still the dominant place to print, yet the low number of prints supports IDC's theory that end users have more reliable expectations regarding mobile imaging than vendors themselves," said Chris Chute, senior analyst for worldwide digital imaging solutions and services at IDC.

The report found that the bulk of cameraphones were owned by the 25-44 age group. However, having tried the technology, over 30 per cent of those who bought a cameraphone were planning to buy a digital camera.