Eastman Kodak Co. announced yesterday it would provide digital imaging services for Nokia Corp.'s new high-end cell phone, which features a built-in camera, in its 1,300 digital-imaging outlets on the Chinese mainland.

"The rapidly growing demand for handsets with cameras in China has created a huge market for Kodak digital print services," said Jacky Chan, general manager of Kodak (China) Co. Ltd.'s consumer imaging department.

Kodak hopes pictures taken with cameras integrated into cell phones will generate a lucrative digital imaging market. More than 12 million cell phones with cameras will be sold on China's mainland this year, far more than the sales of digital cameras, Chan said.

The output of digital cameras in Shanghai last year has been estimated to surge 70 percent year-on-year to 500,000 units.

The company estimated customers this year would process about 70 million pictures, taken by mobile phones, at Kodak's 8,000 outlets across the country. The figure is as many as those downloaded from digital cameras, or 1 percent of all pictures processed by the photographic giant.

Mobile phone pictures are expected to take 14 percent of the total photo output in 2005, Chan said. Those of digital cameras will climb to 5 percent.

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd., a joint venture between Sony Corp. and L.M. Ericsson Co., is also expected to launch a mobile camera phone later this year.

Kodak said yesterday it will soon begin testing online processing services in Shanghai, but it will not expand to a large scale due to the city's undeveloped credit card system.

Fuji Photo Film, Kodak's rival, is also investing in the fast growing digital-imaging market.

The Japanese company invested more than 150 million yuan (US$12.05 million) in promotional campaigns during the past two years as it plans to increase the number of Fuji digital imaging express stores in China to 1,000 this year.

(Shanghai Daily January 6, 2003)