Camera-Phones

When camera-phones were first launched the digital camera industry was not at all concerned, claiming they would never catch on and never rival their sales. This confidence was shattered when camera-phones took 90% of the market. The world's first camera-phone was launched in 2000. By 2003, more camera-phones were sold globally than all stand-alone digital cameras. By the next year, camera-phones alone outsold all types of stand-alone cameras (digital and film-based). Today camera-phones outsell stand-alone cameras by 10 to 1.

In hindsight, it should have been clear from the outset, the huge consumer uptake. Mobile phones are everywhere, portable, convenient and always on you, it just makes sense.

At the beginning the camera-phones had a few issues, like low mega-pixels and only being able to send it as an MMS. But as these problems were overcome, there was nothing standing in the way, and the entire mass market shifted.

So as mobile banking and m-commerce are starting to take off, statistics like this are very promising.

The camera-phone can be taken as a case study, as the initial problems are very similar. Mobile payments had to compete with PSMS, which has dominated the market for so long. This side of the market is now changing.

Then there is consumer confidence and business confidence. The consumers, although there are concerns of fraud, are changing their opinions, with mobile payments proving its worth in African countries and India. The lack of business confidence is slowly changing with the likes of Bank of America getting involved and testing out NFC. It won't be long until business can see all the benefits mobile payments have to offer. Laurie Readhead, Bank of America's head of electronic commerce, said "we see this as a critical capability given the increasing acceptance and adoption of bank services on the phone. It's a way to accelerate mobile contactless payments in the U.S. market."

Just like the camera-phone, once these initial issues are ironed out, mobile payments and banking will be able to take the large chunk of the market it deserves.

Danielle Dalkie
PR and Social Media
Waspit LTD

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