Is a picture phone worth 1,000 words?
“I’m probably going to have to get a cell phone.”
Matt’s announcement surprised me.
My son, who has never shown as much interest as his sisters in mobile phones, was suddenly joining the party.
“All my roommates have cell phones,” he said. “So I’ll need one, too.”
In other words, they won’t be getting a land line next month when they move into their apartment.
“What kind of phone?” I asked as we waited for our food at a downtown restaurant.
“Just something simple.”
I saw that as an opportunity for me to help him find something really cool.
“How about the new phones that take photos?”
In the last few months, domestic wireless phone services have been trying to convince us we need phones that not only let us send voice or text messages, but also take and send photos.
Sprint PCS unveiled the first American wireless phone with a camera last October.
Sprint pushed the Sanyo 5300 ($299.99), which has a flash feature for close-up portraits, and captures images at a resolution of 310,000 pixels — not good enough for prints, but OK for display on a computer.
That compares with the 1 and 2 megapixel resolution you can get with some of the cheapest digital cameras, which cost around $200.
You can also access the PCS Vision Web site to manage your photos into albums.
Earlier this month, Verizon Wireless launched its first major push into mass market photo messaging service.
Verizon’s LG VX6000 camera phones (which cost $149.99 after a $50 rebate) lets you send photos to any e-mail address or to a Verizon Wireless TXT Messaging-enabled phone. It captures images with a resolution of 330,000 pixels. It costs a quarter to send and to receive a photo.
Other wireless carriers in the U.S. offering photo messaging services include AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile and Cingular Wireless.
Want to make prints of your phone photos? So far, there are only two phones on the market that are 1 megapixel or above in resolution, which will allow you to get a decent print.
In May, Casio unveiled its A5401CA in Japan. The Casio model captures images at an industry-leading 1.24 megapixels.
Also in May, Sharp introduced its SH-53 Megapixel Camera Phone. It was billed as the first true megapixel-class mobile handset to be commercially available, if only in Japan.
There’s no word when either phone might be available stateside.
I continued trying to sell my son on the camera phone idea as he munched on chicken strips.
“Well, for example, here we are in this bar,” I said, looking around at the lunchtime crowd.
“And if I want to send Mom a photo message while she’s at work that we’re having a good time, I could do it.”
Matt raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t see why you’d be in such a hurry to send a photo,” he said. “I don’t get it.”
I found myself grasping for the right words. I wished I could show him.
And that might be the best reason for a camera phone — sometimes words just aren’t enough.