August 13, 2003
Camera phones click in U.S. market
The camera-phone craze appears to have officially hit the United States, with Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless both boasting of millions of picture messages passing over their networks every month, reports RCR News.
-- Sprint, which sold the first integrated camera phone in the United States in 2001 has announced that it's subscribers have sent more than 10 million pictures over its PCS network in the second quarter.
-- Verizon Wireless announced its customers shared more than 1 million picture messages in less than 30 days since the service launch July 8.
"The big hurdle in North America is interoperability. Right now, the sender and receiver of a cell-phone image have to be on the same network for instant, peer-to-peer messaging. The hurdle is not technical; it's economic and political. It comes down to money and territory. The various carriers have to decide how to divvy up the revenues." said analyst Tony Henning with Future Image.
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