A new frontier in the mobile phone wars is set to open up as eight megapixel camera phones hit the high street.

The new handsets, which analysts tip will be hot sellers in the run-up to Christmas, are now as technically advanced as many digital cameras.

With the quality of camera phones rapidly increasing, analysts say the move by the mobile makers into the lofty end of the megapixel table will pitch them head on with entry level traditional digital cameras.

High end camera phones threaten to become another nail in the coffin for troubled camera retailer Jessops, which has been forced to close a quarter of its stores and cut 200 jobs after seeing sales tumble in the last year.

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Currently the highest megapixel count – the number of dots, measured in millions, that make up an image – sported by a camera phone is five.

Samsung will raise the bar by a further three million pixels this evening as it launches its new Innov8 mobile phone, the first eight megapixel phone to reach the UK. The Innov8, which hits shelves on September 1 in Carphone Warehouse, will be offered free on Orange £35 contracts. With face, smile and blink recognition (meaning the photograph will not take if someone is blinking, for example, or unless the person is smiling) as well as the ability to load photos straight to the web, Samsung is taking on even the mid-range digital cameras.

Sony Ericsson is due to enter the fray at the end of October when its feature rich 8.1 megapixel C905, the newest entry in its Sony Cybershot phone range, goes on sale in the UK. Other handset makers, including Nokia and LG, are expected to follow before long.

In the last six years the quality of camera phones has rapidly increased from the clip-on one megapixel attachments that appeared in 2002.

The pixel count of point-and-shoot digital cameras has also rocketed in the last few years from three to 13 megapixels.

Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insight, said: “Camera phones are now going in the same direction as digital still cameras but at an accelerated pace. Together with memory size it really has become one of the key battlegrounds in the mobile technology arms-race.”

He predicts mobiles with 10 megapixel and 12 megapixel cameras will hit the market within the next year.

“Now camera phones are competing head-on with entry level digital still cameras,” Mr Wood said. “My expectation is that it won’t be long before we start comparing camera phones with “real” cameras."

With the Innov8 offered free on contracts, Mr Wood predicts it will be hard for standalone camera makers to compete.

The run up to Christmas is one of the high points on the sales calendar for handset makers and a raft of new phones are expected to hit the market in the next couple of months as manufacturers try to make up for slowing sales so far this year.

Carolina Milanesi, handset analyst at Gartner, said: “As far as the applications go, eight megapixels will be one of the things people will be looking for this Christmas.”

However, analysts question the extent to which megapixel count makes a difference in terms of quality. By equiping the iPhone with a two megapixel camera Apple made the point that size does not matter and that it felt smartphone sales were unlikely to be swayed by pixel count.

Mr Wood said: “Consumers always tend to think that a higher number of pixels means it’s a better camera but more pixels do not automatically mean better quality.

“Mainstream camera manufacturers like Kodak tried to fight this a few years ago and realised it was futile. They concluded that it does not matter how much you spend on marketing the fact that other factors like the lens can give better pictures with less pixels, consumers always follow the numbers.”

David Adams, executive chairman at Jessops, believes the latest camera phones will in fact boost sales of compact cameras.

He said: “It’s not all about size and it’s not all about megapixels. There’s no doubt there’s a place in everyone’s pocket for a camera phone and if you want to take pictures out in the park or the pub they are great. But what it doesn’t provide is the functionality of a digital camera. In unit terms compact camera sales are up 20 per cent a year and what people are buying is functionality, such as face recognition or features that enhance complexion and remove wrinkles, which camera phones don’t have.

“These phones are not a huge problem. It just expands the market for us.”

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