Some twenty years later, disco houses have become rarer than the butandings and more endangered than the tamaraw. But that song’s sinister message of being watched by a Big Brother-like presence has grown by perhaps a million fold. Everywhere one goes, no matter which part of the metropolis, even all around the country. Every place feels like somebody, indeed, is watching.

Blame the camera phone. This digital camera-toting mobile gadget, which can either be a cell phone with a camera or a digital camera with a mobile phone, has radically changed our notions of privacy and public places.

Camera-equipped mobile phones first appeared in Japan in 2000. Two years later, more than 5 million subscribers in that country are using their camera phones to snap photos and share those pictures with friends through the mobile networks.

Subscribers in other countries have readily embraced mobile phones with built-in camera. In fact, in 2004, camera phones outsold standalone or dedicated digital cameras.

In the U.S., camera phones made up almost 40 percent of mobile-phone shipments in 2004, according to market research firm IDC. This figure is expected to go up to almost 60 percent in 2005, and could approach 90 percent in 2009.

Camera phones account for more than 50 percent of the market in Europe.

Industry statistics reveal that global sales volume of camera phones reached 84 million in 2003, a huge increase from the 18 million handsets sold in 2002. Camera phones, in fact, accounted for 16 percent of the total sales volume of handsets. Preliminary estimates have industry analysts placing 2004 sales at 170 units.

Various factors are driving the growth of the market for camera-equipped mobile phones, but those with the most direct and far-reaching impact include advances in electronic components manufacture and the continuing transformation of China into the world’s most cost-competitive base for manufacture. Camera modules, for example, are scaled down to sub-miniature levels. But despite their radically smaller sizes, components now incorporate more features and enhanced functions compared with their larger predecessors.

Early camera phone models came with sub-megapixel sensors. Today, some mobile phones offer resolutions as high as 3 or more megapixels. Some months ago, Samsung introduced a camera phone with a 5-megapixel camera module. A little later, the Korean electronics giant upped the ante by announcing a mobile phone equipped with a 7-megapixel digital camera.

Other camera phone makers are not sitting idly by either. Market leader Nokia, for example, has announced a host of camera phone models with advanced imaging capabilities. But aside from the battle for the bragging rights to having the highest pixel count, handset companies are incorporating other advanced features to their mobile phones, especially their high-end models.

The latest models of camera phones also come with wireless connectivity features, such as Bluetooth and infrared, which enable their users to send photos to other compatible mobile phones, computers, and printers.

Today, in some cities around the world, mobile phones have become much more than a communication device. Mobile phones are used to purchase soda out of vending machines. Drivers can even pay parking and toll fees using their mobile phones.

Or, imagine going to a Cineplex to watch the latest movie featuring your favorite actor, or to a concert performance by your favorite artist. At the lobby of the theater, you find a poster announcing the performance. Now, all you have to do to purchase a ticket is snap a photo of the poster or a designated portion of it, and a virtual electronic ticket goes into your mobile handset. This sci-fi sounding scenario takes place in the world’s more technologically advanced cities. Indeed, their built-in cameras have given mobile phones a wide range of new applications.

While camera phones and transmission of photo files over the mobile networks are still to prove themselves as killer applications that would increase customer spending, camera phones have brought about a new market for related printers, picture-finishing centers and a long line of online services.

Yet, more advanced features and functions are envisioned for the camera phone. Intel Corp., for example, is investigating new uses for camera phones. Requiring no additional hardware, camera phones can be used as pointing devices, authentication devices, and as data storage devices. 

Here, in our local shores, where mobile phones have found consumer embrace warmer than anywhere else on Earth, an increasing number of subscribers are upgrading to handset models with cameras. Prevalent poverty may prove to be a near-insurmountable obstacle for camera phones to become as commonly available as their pure-talk and text predecessors. Nevertheless, more and more subscribers are willing to part with their hard-earned money to have one of those camera-equipped handsets.

One can only guess what future impact the camera phone will have on consumers and how they interact with each other. The fact that other more advanced technologies are surely coming makes one wonder what new applications are in store for consumers, for ordinary people, and the world they live in. Whatever those new applications will turn out to be, may they bring their users closer to finding harmony and peace. After all, they have more than enough phone sex videos, and other violations of their rights to privacy and good taste.