Camera phone frenzy

Remember when a cellular phone was the size of a cordless home phone? Well, not only are they now tiny and compact, but they have the ability to take pictures too!
Camera phones are all the rage nowadays. According to a recent study by tech market researcher IDC, many consumers in the United States are buying camera-equipped cell phones.
Cellular phones have become innovative with extraordinary features such as color screens and ringtones that sound like the songs played on the radio. They also allow you to take and send pictures to other compatible phones.
“I feel that they are very unnecessary. I don’t see the point in having a camera on a phone,” said Deven George, a junior business management major from Opelousas.
Wireless providers Verizon, Sprint and Nextel accommodate customers with the innovative item. Camera phones are preferred over basic functioning phones, although they are more costly.
” A friend of mine owns a camera phone, but personally I prefer my basic phone because I cannot afford a camera phone,” said Candace Allen, a senior nursing major from Dallas.
“My phone does the same job a camera phone would do at a cheaper price”.
Since the camera phone’s introduction in 2000, the demand for them has skyrocketed to enormous numbers. So many, in fact, that the devices may soon outsell DVD players. Some 80 million units have been shipped worldwide.
Although the camera phone is presently a hot commodity, wireless providers are worried that the fire behind them may die. One concern that analysts have about camera phones is maintaining user interest in the service after the spike that immediately follows a purchase.
Nearly a third of users stop taking pictures entirely a few months after the purchase and less than 20 percent say they use the camera for the type of spontaneous events touted by the industry’s ads.
“Some guys I know have use their camera phones to take pictures of ladies’ behinds, then send them to their friends,” said Bernadette Lorden, a senior sociology major from Church Point. ” Others use them to capture moments of fun.”