Research Reports

Future Imaging Mobile Imaging Reports

Mobile Imaging and the Future of Bandwidth

The slow speeds of even the most advanced cellular networks make sending images from camera-phones a tedious process regardless of whether they are sent to a phone, an e-mail address, or a URL. When it takes more than a minute and sometimes as long as three minutes to share an image, users think twice before they hit the Send button. Therefore lack of bandwidth is a critical inhibitor to the widespread, mainstream adoption of Mobile Imaging, and to monetizing images within the mobile ecosystem.

Megapixel Camera-Phones North America - A Comparative Overview

Future Image recently introduced the Mobile Megapixel Monitor (MMM) as a component of its Mobile Imaging Report (MIR) continuous information service. The MMM is an online database accessible to MIR subscribers, which provides up to the minute reference information on the imaging capabilities of all camera-phones with megapixel or greater resolution currently for sale in North America, or announced for sale in the near term. To illustrate how the MMM can be used by market researchers, product planners and marketing and sales executives, this report presents the findings from a review and analysis of the database, which at publication date includes 17 models from 10 carriers. Database fields include Manufacturer, Model, Carrier, Price, Availability, Style, Dimensions, Sensor Type, Maximum Resolution, Optical Zoom Factor, Digital Zoom Factor, Flash, Video Capture Capabilities, Main Display, Sub-display, Camera Features, Removable Media, Connectivity Options, and Special Features. The report also includes a complete database listing, record-by-record and fully illustrated.

Mobile Imaging - Inside the Camera-Phone Ecosystem

On October 11 and 12, 2005, 140 senior executives – CEOs, Vice Presidents, and Directors – from the photography, information processing, content and telecommunications companies leading the camera-phone revolution, came together at the exclusive Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa for a day and a half of high-level brainstorming and networking hosted by Future Image and the International Imaging Industry Association. This report provides a comprehensive briefing on the opinions expressed and subsequent discussions. It includes the entire proceedings of the conference on video, in a five DVD set playable on a PC, Macintosh and/or a consumer DVD player.

Turning Push Into Pull - Driving Clicks and Prints from Camera-Phones

While sales growth of camera-phones in North America remains explosive, the market is currently driven by Push marketing strategies, namely subsidized sales of camera-phones by carriers. Lively discussions at the recent Mobile Imaging Summit North America (October 28 & 29, 2004) focused on what's necessary to switch the growth engine to customer Pull in order to grow the Mobile Imaging 'pie' for all concerned. Generating downstream revenues from images captured with the camera-phones is central to generating profits in areas beyond components and devices, and ultimately to the health of the entire ecosystem. This report summarizes discussions at the Summit and provides the recommendations of Future Image analysts concerning actions needed to generate regular use by the general public of the camera functions in their phones: evolving the devices to optimize them for image capture without compromising their communications capabilities; achieving image quality that meets consumer expectations within the specific constraints of camera-phones; and overcoming current bottlenecks to easy transfer of image data among devices in the imaging value chain.

Sending Photos Phone to Phone: Challenges & Opportunities

4 x 6 Shoot-Out: Are Camera-Phones Ready To Make Consumer Prints?

This 36-page study, including 119 figures, charts, and tables, was to determine if currently available camera-phones are capable of delivering acceptable consumer prints and to assess how the images produced measure up to those produced by the most popular standalone consumer cameras. More...

Photoblogs – The New Paradigm for Photo Sharing

An in-depth look at geometric growth of photoblogging, a new form of web-based photo sharing that has seen 10X month over month growth in content and users since the Spring of 2003. The report examines how photoblogs are changing the way digital photos are used and shared on the web, the role of key players already entering the segment such as AOL and Google, and the implications for various sectors of the imaging industry.

Will Camera-Phones Replace Digital Cameras?

Based on an in-depth analysis of the performance characteristics of point-and-shoot digital cameras and camera-phones in more than 30 separate performance and value dimensions, both for current and soon-to-be-released models. Current and near-term capabilities and trends are considered.

The Camera-Phone Phenomenon

The "Camera-Phone Phenomenon" report forecasts that the challenges to mass-market adoption of camera-phones in the U.S. — both business and technical — will be met within the next 12 months. Carriers such as Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T have already been paving the way for months with television and print ads aimed at raising public awareness of picture messaging. More...

Wireless Imaging - Overcoming the Challenges

Published in 2001, this is the original ground-breaking report that predicted and defined the Mobile Imaging market. It is a "must-read" for those who are new to the industry and want to understand the technologies, companies, products, and forces that shaped it.

The report consists of two sections: Infrastructure and Players. The infrastructure section details the Wireless Imaging Value Chain including capture devices and components, transmission devices, carriers, and portals. It addresses the technical challenges inherent to wireless imaging, and the geographical differences between the U.S., Europe and Asia. The Players section profiles over a dozen vendors and partnerships with declared plans for wireless imaging solutions.