Global camera phone sales to reach 300m in '05 -- report

Research firm Gartner has announced that worldwide sales of camera phones will reach 295.5 million in 2005. This represents a 38% of total worldwide mobile phone sales, up from 14% in 2004.

Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner, said: 'a key factor in future market growth will be the declining cost of integrating the technology into mobile phones.'

Gartner predicts that the cost of integrating a one-megapixel camera to a phone will more than halve over the next four years.

Gartner predicts that sales of camera phones in Western Europe will be close to 85 million by the end of 2005, more than 55% of total mobile terminal sales in the region.

By 2009 this will rise to 143 million, representing nearly 90% of the Western European mobile market.

North America also continues to experience significant growth, with the camera phone market driving overall growth in mobile sales. Camera phone sales are expected to reach over 70 million units in 2005, representing 47% of total device sales in 2005. -Dow Jones