Steve, this is a very good piece on an interesting issue, do you have
an online link for it? I would like to refer to it or quote it, if
that's OK.
Also did anyone of those people you talked to indicate how they would
enforce such a ban?
Cheers
Dirk
On Friday, Jul 4, 2003, at 02:04 Asia/Tokyo, Mayall, Steve wrote:
>
> yes - that volvo story is interesting.=20
>
> i phoned a number of big car and defence companies and they all seemed
> surp=
> rised but intrigued by the prospect of camera phones being used for
> espiona=
> ge and confirmed they would have to ban them
>
> also ... at an MMS conference I attended yesterday most of the
> networks are=
> now encouraging manufacturers to build embedded camera phones rather
> than =
> attachable ones as they've found that the latter don't stimulate MMS
> at all
>
> so it would seem there's a potential conflict.=20
>
> Here's something I wrote on this for the newsletter Mobile Media
>
> Camera-phone use clashes with
> industrial espionage worries
> Camera phones
> The recent decision by Swedish car manufacturer Volvo to ban camera
> phones =
> might be followed by many similar decisions. Fears of industrial
> espionage =
> could force vendors to realign their handset strategies for the
> corporate m=
> arket and might even affect the consumer market in some regions.
>
> The ban is effective across all of the more secure zones across the
> Volvo =
> automobile corporation, which em-ploys nearly 28,000 people. The
> se-cure zo=
> nes cover the company's assembly plants and offices, effec-tively
> prohibiti=
> ng all advanced phones in the major part of the com-pany. "
>
> We don't have anything against the technology," says Volvo spokesman
> Christ=
> er Gustafsson. "It's very nice technology, but it creates a little bit
> of a=
> problem. For many, many years there has been a ban to bring cameras
> inside=
> security areas. From the assembly line to the safety center to the
> design =
> rooms - this in-cludes a large part of the company. Cameras are
> forbidden .=
> .. so we had to ban the camera phones."=20
>
> Volvo's owner, Ford, says the decision applies to Sweden alone, but it
> isn'=
> t ruling out the possibility that the decision could extend to the
> entire g=
> roup. Several other engineering and de-fense firms have confirmed to
> MM tha=
> t, though not yet an issue, they will have to address camera phones.=20
>
> Martin Brody, a spokesman for the defense arm of Rolls-Royce, reveals
> that =
> the company hadn't considered the issue but would likely follow
> Vol-vo. "Ca=
> meras are not allowed on our site, that's for sure," he says. "That's
> been =
> company policy for many years. The assumption would be that if cameras
> are =
> banned, then camera phones must be too."=20
>
> Richard Coltart, a spokesman for UK defence giant BAE systems,
> concurs. "Th=
> is will become an issue," he says. "Cameras are forbidden." Car
> manufacture=
> rs MG Rover in the UK and BMW in Germany both ban the use of cameras
> and co=
> nfirm they will by definition also look at banning camera phones.
> "There is=
> not an official position, but if we in-stall a certain rule then we
> will a=
> pply this also to the camera phone or video phone," says a BMW
> spokesman. "=
> It's not enough to say you can have a camera phone but you can't use
> it."=
> =20
> Although the problem is not yet cause for serious concern for handset
> vendo=
> rs, it appears to have at least reached the radar of Sony Ericsson.
> Peter B=
> odor, the company's global PR manager, is aware of the Volvo decision
> and i=
> s sensitive to enterprise requirements. "As a vendor, you have to
> accept an=
> d respect their regulations," he says. "When we look at segmentation
> [of th=
> e product market], we see there are customers who don't want to have
> the ca=
> mera built into the phone."=20
>
> Nokia, however, says enterprises will have to adapt. "We are fully
> aware th=
> at there is some limited con-cern, but these things happen quite often
> with=
> new technology," claims Mika Setala, Nokia imaging phones' marketing
> manag=
> er. Setala claims that companies will have to accept that camera
> function-a=
> lity is an inevitable part of handset development. Similarly,
> operators are=
> unper-turbed. "This is definitely not an is-sue," says Orange
> spokesman Be=
> n Rosier. "We have a policy on respon-sible use. ... That is
> enough."=20
>
> Yet at Volvo, the message is clear. "We don't allow anyone in the
> com-pany =
> to have a camera phone," says Gustafsson. "If a phone becomes
> available wit=
> h a camera, we cannot have it in the company." The com-pany would not
> consi=
> der taking on a corporate contract for a handset that included a
> camera.=20
>
> Although Volvo's decision on its own is not disastrous, if more
> com-panies =
> follow its lead, operators and vendors will have to adapt their
> cor-porate =
> strategies. T-Mobile, for ex-ample, has a number of core handset
> models for=
> the enterprise sector. Many of Nokia Series 60 handsets and the Sony
> Erics=
> son P800 have cameras embedded in them.=20
>
> According to Peter Bancroft, Sym-bian's vice president of
> communica-tions, =
> there will have to be a considerable amount of resistance to cameras
> in pho=
> nes before any will be removed, however. "The imaging functionality is
> a pa=
> rt of the operat-ing system," he explains. "[Creating] advanced phones
> requ=
> ires a substan-tial investment of millions. The like-lihood is that
> the man=
> ufacturer will build in the [camera] capability rather than build it
> out on=
> the off chance that companies might not like it until they have prima
> faci=
> e ev-idence to the contrary."=20
>
> That certainly seems to be Nokia's view. "In the near future, cameras
> will =
> be by default a feature of all mo-bile phones - like SMS," Setala
> says. He =
> says companies will drop their objections to the camera functional-ity
> once=
> they realize what else the phone can do. "Access to e-mail, web
> browsing, =
> access to the company database - these are all things that companies
> want,"=
> he claims. "The benefits of these will override [any objection to]
> the cam=
> era feature."=20
>
> Sony Ericsson appears to be mak-ing some concessions to user
> re-quirements.=
> "The camera is a private thing," Bodor says. "We're just start-ing to
> see =
> how it's being used in the business market." He says that many
> corporate us=
> ers might prefer to have Bluetooth functionality without the built-in
> camer=
> a. "The P800 is not going to suffer," he says. "We defi-nitely don't
> regret=
> embedding a cam-era." He concedes, however, that there will be reason
> to c=
> onsider vari-eties in the future. "Going forward, there will be a
> demand fo=
> r phones without the camera," he says.
> steve.mayall@informa.com
>
>
Received on Fri Jul 4 05:58:14 2003