Wireless Sector Pins Hopes on Shutterbugs

Chip Outlook

Brian O'Rourke, an analyst at technology-research firm InStat/MDR, estimates chip manufacturers will ship 35 million imaging chips this year and 60 million units next year. "The big driver will be mobile-phone cameras," said O'Rourke.

Strategy Analytics, meanwhile, expects the camera-phone industry to sell 16 million units this year, beating the handheld-computer industry's anticipated 13 million units. By 2004, camera-phone sales are expected to overtake the digital camera industry and reach 54 million units, compared with an estimated 47 million units for cameras, the research firm says.

Still, camera phones will face a crucial global trial next year in regions outside the gadget-obsessed Japanese and Korean markets. "It will be prohibitively expensive for the mass market until the end of next year," noted Gartner Dataquest's Prohm. Moreover, even the most bullish analysts caution that sales of such devices may not take off until either the latter half of 2003 or 2004.