Gena Creque is a camera phone marketer's dream.
Ms. Creque, a 23-year-old human resources director for a polling company in Melbourne, Fla., estimates she takes and posts to the Web an average of five digital pictures every day, regularly updating her personal mobile Web log, or "moblog."
"I love people," Ms. Creque says of her self-described moblogging addiction. "And this is a great way to schmooze. I'm a great big flirt."
While Ms. Creque and like-minded photo bloggers amuse themselves and each other with frequent, candid and often racy cellphone pictures, cell carriers and equipment manufacturers are avidly observing and in some cases moving in on the moblogging trend.
Although new cellphone models increasingly come with cameras attached, wireless companies with huge investments in new high-speed networks and fancy phones fear people won't find a corresponding new need to take pictures and send them — for a fee — over the wireless Internet.
"We're definitely looking at this," said Ritch Blasi, an AT&T Wireless spokesman. "You could take a picture and shoot it over to the laptop, but that does me no good because it doesn't use the network. The same way people don't think twice about making a phone call, you want to get them comfortable with how this is done and how much it's going to cost."
Cellphone plans vary in terms of how subscribers are charged for Internet access, but Mr. Blasi estimates that it costs 25 cents to send a picture over the network.
Consumer and cell company demand for moblogs has yielded opportunity for a number of start-ups including TextAmerica, Mobog, Buzznet and Ploggle.
TextAmerica, a photo-oriented blog site with international reach, said it signed a deal to license its technology to a top-five cell carrier.
The San Diego start-up, with a staff of five, introduced its service just over a year ago, and since then says it has amassed half a million registered users. About 20 per cent of those upload pictures from their camera phones; the rest are there to watch and comment.
"Moblogging drives the adoption of camera phones," said Chris Hoar, a TextAmerica founder. "If you talk to Telecom Italia or Cingular or Sprint, their numbers don't add up. These networks cost a lot of money to maintain and they're subsidizing camera phones. Taking two images per month per user is not going to pay back your investment."
Today, the most popular use of moblogs is personal. But analysts expect business applications, for instance, by real estate agents in hot markets where speed is essential in getting images of new properties to clients.
Analysts agree that services like TextAmerica will interest cell carriers trying to get a return on their significant investments in high-bandwidth data networks and in subsidizing consumers' expensive and increasingly high-resolution camera phones.
The idea is that moblogs will both keep the novelty from wearing off cellphone photography and get subscribers like Ms. Creque to keep racking up on-line minutes on their monthly bills.
"Moblogs and cellular operators go together," said Alan Reiter, president of Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing in Chevy Chase, Md. "The cellular industry is spending billions of dollars worldwide to upgrade their networks to faster data rates, and there have to be some reasons to use those faster data rates. The industry is desperate to find applications that people will use."
Cellphone photography is not without its critics. It has come under fire by health clubs and other places where people now disrobe in the company of photographic devices. Those nervous about the use of cellphones in locker rooms won't be comforted by moblogging sites, some of which abound in nude candids.
Even TextAmerica, which proclaims itself a "family-oriented" site, doesn't entirely disavow the erotic character of some postings.
"I might not want my five-year-old on the site," Mr. Hoar acknowledged. "It's risque at best."
