3 megapixel cameras and smaller handsets the way forward for mobile phones

Scott Lin, Chairman of Largan Precision, has predicted that 2 megapixel camera phones are set to continue to dominate the camera phone market in 2008, whilst sales of 3 megapixel models are unlikely to see any significant increase in sales until the end of the year. However, Lin is also predicting that the sales of 3 megapixel models will rise so rapidly that they will become the mainstream phone of 2009.

2 megapixel cameras have seen continuing improvements in their profit margins - and Lin expects that reduced manufacturing costs will lead to lower average selling prices for camera phones.

Automatic and optical zoom features are still being developed by many phone manufacturers, whilst Largan completed its design for these models in 2007. However, optical zoom increases handset size - which has caused a slowdown in sales in countries such as Japan. According to Lin, companies should invest more money to solve this size issue.