Camera Phone Marketing is Out of Focus
Even as more people are going out and buying (and using) camera phones, there's the beginning of a backlash on the cameras. People are noticing, for example that the cameras are really terrible. The images are awful and tiny. While this is understandable, based on what you're getting, it may cause people to feel cheated and lose interest in using their camera phones. I know I have a cheap camera phone that I've used about five times - and the first four were to demonstrate the feature to people who wanted to see how it worked. As this article points out, to defend against this issue carriers are even inventing a new category of snapshots, called "disposable images". They're suggesting (as most people quickly learn by themselves) that you not plan on taking photos you plan to save with your digital camera. Instead, you're just supposed to use it to take simple quick images. Of course, this is a problem that will clearly get solved over time as the quality of the cameras in camera phones improve. The real question is whether or not consumers are okay with waiting.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
