Nine out of 10 phones will have a camera by 2009

Within four years, nine out of 10 mobile phones sold will feature a camera.

According to predictions by research company IDC, 179 million camera phones will be sold in western Europe in 2009 - more than 90 per cent of total mobile phone sales.

The integrated digital camera has become the most visible illustration to date of the progress of convergence in the mobile market.

-- Andrew Brown, European mobile devices programme manager, IDC

The researchers said demand for camera phones will slightly outpace the growth forecast for the total mobile phone market.

Andrew Brown, IDC's European mobile devices programme manager, said in a statement: "The integrated digital camera has become the most visible illustration to date of the progress of convergence in the mobile market."

Last year 70 per cent of mobile phones shipped in western Europe had integrated cameras - up from just 15 per cent in 2003.

Even cheaper components and manufacturing efficiencies will push integrated digital cameras into the low-end handsets market, while high-speed networks and technologies such as SIP (session initiation protocol) and IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) will make the digital camera central to rich content sharing across fixed and mobile networks and between IP-enabled devices.

But IDC said the camera phone is unlikely to replace the standalone digital camera.

Geoff Blaber, IDC European mobile devices research analyst, said in a statement: "While camera phones will cannibalise limited demand at the low end of the digital camera market, IDC believes that integrated cameras will largely assist digital camera market growth by alerting a broader demographic to the capability of digital photography."