科技英语新闻:Worldwide camera phone sales expected to exceed 1 billion in 2011

SAN FRANCISCO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A latest research has shown that worldwide camera phone sales, driven by fast growing high- tier camera phone market, will top 1 billion units for the first time in 2011.

According to the study by Strategy Analytics, a global independent research and consulting firm, sales of camera phones are projected to grow by 21 percent from 918 million units last year to 1.114 billion units in 2011, which will be the first time that annual volumes of camera phones have exceeded the 1-billion mark.

"The fastest growing segment of the camera phone market will be the high-tier. We forecast camera phones with sensors of eight megapixels and above to grow a healthy 240 percent worldwide during 2011," Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement on Thursday.

He added that smartphone vendors, such as Nokia and HTC, are increasingly loading their flagship models with more megapixels to deliver improved imaging quality for premium operator services.

Statistics from Strategy Analytics show that some 4.2 billion camera phones have been sold worldwide since 2000.