Will Camera Phones Increase The Demand For Paper?

from the seems-like-a-stretch dept

Remember how all the predictions of the "paperless office" seem to have gone the other direction, and we all have more papers lying around thanks to computers? Well, Guy Kewney is now looking to see if the fear that camera phones will wipe out the need for paper photographs will create the same opposite effect. He believes that, rather than hurt the paper industry, camera phones will be a major boost to paper makers. Of course, that won't happen now, while the quality of camera phones remains pretty weak. However, it's getting better every day, and so he expects there to be big business in remote photo-printing stations. Just walk up to them with your camera phone full of new pictures, and get immediate printouts. I'm not so sure. For many people (especially younger ones), having photos on paper seems somewhat pointless - no matter how good the quality is. With the rise of simple online photo-albums and moblogs, there just doesn't seem to be a point to having printouts of most photos any more. Of course, there will always be some exceptions, but, generally speaking, you want printouts on either portraits or the more artistic pictures that are being shown. For most people, the point of the camera phone is to take snapshots, not portraits. Snapshots are used to tell a story, and that can often be done online even better than on paper.