Camera phones could kick off a new wave of visual communication and reshape the photo business

Richard Mullins and Ben Rand for the Democrat and Chronicle ponder on the use of picture phones by citizens and businesses. Young people armed with cameras are giving pause to those who make a living selling tickets to live events. Concert promotors back from Europe describe how when the lights go on and the band comes out, thousands of hands go up in the air, all with their cell phones, like the Wave, but with camera phones. (Fans in Finland have raised their cell phones at Nylon Beat concerts, playing the tune of a newly released single's ringtone), but Rochester's largest indoor performance hall is considering adding cell phones to the list of prohibited items at certain events such as the upcoming PGA Championship.

Tom Accorso, 32, of Chili interviewed for this article explains how he was able to send picture of a party to a girlfriend sick at home, while it was happening - the singing, the cake - and professionnally, as his job consists of sealing driveways, he started taking pictures of any pre-existing tar splatters on a customer's garage or house. "Just so if a customer asks, I can say, "Here, look, that was there before I started."

Camera phones have also given a huge boost to the phenomenon of online photo diaries for digital pictures, such as photoblogs.org and fotolog.net, that collect thousands of photographs from digital camera users".

And Nokia has been busy making deals with Kodak, for allowing Nokia users to store, print and share digital pictures online, with Carphone Warehouse, for instant photo kiosk-services to be launched in their stores and more than 1,500 Kodak Picture Makers kiosks have rolled out across the Asia Pacific

emily | 4:27 PM | Business Applications |
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