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3 Mega-Pixel Camera Phone to Hit Market This Year



By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
Camera phones pose a genuine threat to digital cameras as the debut of mobile handsets equipped with 3-mega-pixel resolution cameras are slated for late this year.

Industry sources on Sunday said Korea¡¯s three largest cell phone makers _ Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Pantech Group _ plan to release 3-mega-pixel camera phones within this year.

If they live up to their promises, the resolution of camera phones will almost triple in just a year as mega-pixel camera phones were only unveiled late last year by Samsung Electronics and Pantech.

Samsung Electronics plans to roll out 2-mega-pixel products this month armed with MP3 players and aims at developing a 3-mega-pixel model late this year.

LG Electronics, which has taken the initiative in the high-end camera phone market, has already brought out its 2-mega-pixel model, LG-SD330, last month and looks to follow suit with 3-mega-pixel phones as early as in the third quarter.

Pantech also has a similar schedule to Samsung¡¯s with the aim of rolling out 2-mega-pixel phones this month and 3-mega-pixel products within this year.

``Up to now cameras are just attractive accessories to mobile phones. But the advent of 3-mega-pixel phones represents the two items converging into a single device in a full-fledged manner,¡¯¡¯ a Seoul analyst said.

``Three-million-pixel resolution is a landmark in the business as it means cell phones may feature camera functions without compromising the quality of photos,¡¯¡¯ he added.

Currently, the mainstream camera phones come with 300,000-pixel resolution, of which picture quality is poor compared with most stand-alone digital cameras.

``As the resolution of camera phones reaches 3 mega pixels, they will rapidly undercut the digital camera market.¡¯¡¯



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06-13-2004 20:16
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200406/kt2004061320150011810.htm