CYBERSPACE – Within two years, camera phones will own most of the market share that currently belongs to low-end digital cameras, according to a new study by ABI Research.According to ABI, mobile phones with 1.3 megapixel cameras will be very common soon, and will outsell VGA camera phones by early 2006. In following years, two, three and four megapixel camera devices in phones will supplant lower specification digital cameras in the market.

“Within the next two years, the quality of a mobile phone camera will be such that people won’t need low-end standalone digital cameras. This will dramatically impact camera sales,” said Kenneth Hyers, principal analyst at ABI Research, in a company statement.

ABI analysts say that the camera phone market will be arranged and segmented based on quality. Vendors like Motorola are targeting the lower end of the market, while manufacturers such as Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung are developing higher-end models with finer lenses and superior resolution.

Other factors that will influence the market include storage capacity, multimedia messaging interoperability, and improvements to imaging and picture management software, according to ABI.

Recent market studies have shown that while digital camera sales are still growing, the rate of growth appears to be slowing down. Sales of digital cameras in the U.S. grew by 20% over the first two quarters of 2005, compared with 50% over the same period in 2004.

ABI Research was founded in 1990, and provides analytic coverage of a wide range of manufacturers and service companies, in fields ranging from wireless communications to fuel cells and energy production.