A cellphone with a built-in or attachable mini camera is the next feature to be offered to gadget-fixated buyers. The multimedia messaging service enables colored photographs to be transmitted instantly to other cellphones, with the appropriate equipment, or to e-mail addresses.
Yet the new cellphone is much more than just a way of making a holiday more memorable. It signals an impending battle for market shares in a new product.
The launching of the Orange SPV cellphone has thrown down the gauntlet. The makers claim that "like no other phone the SPV is powered by Microsoft Windows and opens up a world of Orange services.
With the SPV you can share photos with friends, play games and keep updated with information that's important to you. You can also link to your PC, connect to the web and check your e-mails and diary dates.
Orange SPV is a joint venture comprising Orange, Microsoft and High-Tech Computer.
The battle for control of the cellphone market is turning into a race between the Microsoft brigade and the Symbian Group. Symbian, set up in 1998, is owned by Nokia, Motorola, Panasonic, Sony Ericsson, Psion, and Siemens.
The fight in the marketplace is happening as the PC and the cellphone move closer to one another. About 4 percent of the 400 million cellphones made this year will include built-in cameras.
The increasing sophistication of cellphones means that they are becoming tiny computers. And cellphones are generally becoming more popular whole PCs are not.
Nokia is to work jointly with the Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer, Matsushita, to connect cellphones with functions in the home such as video recording using the Internet. This is part of Nokia's strategy of extending the use of cellphones to increase the versatility and range of its products.
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