Increased sales at the high end of the smartphone market will help to push the number of cameraphones over the one billion mark during 2011 according to experts.

Research from Strategy Analytics has shown that by the end of the year the company is predicting that more than one billion cameraphones will have been bought.

This increase in sales of the duel function device could threaten the lower end digital camera market as consumers opt for the two in one option.

Analyst Neil Mawston said: “The growing quality of high tier cameraphones is making them an increasing threat to the lower end point and shoot digital camera market.”

According to the research the sale of cameraphones is set to grow by 21% in comparison to 2010 which would see n estimated 1.1 billion cameraphones being sold through the year, pushing sales over the billion mark the first ever time.

Instrumental in this growth is the increasing popularity of mobile phones with a five megapixel or higher resolution capability. These high end phones are set to double in sales this year to more than 360 million phones, this is in stark contrast to the digital camera market which is due to sell 130 million devices over the same period.

Neil Mawston added: “Smartphone vendors, such as Nokia and HTC, are increasingly loading their flagship models with more megapixels to deliver improved imaging quality for premium operator services like augmented reality.”