Mobile Blogs Offer Opportunities for Operators to Monetize Camera Phones
The latest generation of online social networking is called moblogs?a combination of the words mobile and blog, reports In-Stat. The abundance of Websites dedicated to moblogging and photoblogging indicates there is a growing interest in combining social networking with camera phone technology, the high-tech market research firm says.
"This growing focus provides financial opportunities for mobile device networks, social networking site operators, and software developers," says Jill Meyers, In-Stat analyst. "Mobile device networks can benefit through traditional methods of data plans, as well as per-message and per-photo charges."
Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
- Software developers have a unique opportunity to focus on developing a series of mobile Internet applications for a greatly desired market segment.
- More than 60% of U.S. mobile phone users have camera functionality in their phones this year, up from about 40% in 2006.
- In-Stat predicts more than one billion camera phones will be in use by year-end 2007.
Posted to the site on 22nd August 2007