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Europeans snap up camera phones
By Talia Felber
LONDON, England (CNN) -- The poor quality of low-resolution photos taken by mobiles with built-in cameras has not prevented users paying money to send pictures via their phones. By December 2003, the number of Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) users in Western Europe will have risen to an estimated 4 million people. Tim Mui, senior analyst of mobile devices at IDC, estimates that by the end of this year, $51 million would have been spent on people using MMS. Mui says this figure is expected to rise to $2,970 million by 2007. Picture messaging makes up 95 percent of all MMS according to Mui. At present, over 10 percent of mobiles sold in Western Europe have a built-in camera, and by 2004 that number is expected to rise to 40 percent. Matthew Dunn, a research analyst from IDC, says each quarter sees an increase in camera phone sales. In the final quarter of 2002, there was a 154 percent rise. And in the second quarter of 2003, 2.7 million camera phones were sold across Western Europe. Camera phones are most popular in Britain, Germany and Italy, accounting for 58 percent of the total Western European camera phone market, according to Dunn. The lowest sales are seen in Ireland. Although proving popular with users, there have been concerns about implications for privacy. Some gyms and swimming pools have already banned mobile phones fearing users might take pictures in changing rooms.
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