One in 5 Internet users in the U.S. owned a mobile phone with an embedded digital camera at the end of last year, a study released Thursday showed.

In comparison, only 3 percent of web surfers had camera phones at the end of 2003, the study by market researcher InfoTrends-CAP Ventures, found. In addition, 27 percent of consumers who do not own a camera phone were "highly interested" in buying one as their next mobile phone.

Two out of 3 current camera phone owners said they took pictures regularly, and more than 40 percent printed their pictures.

"The introduction of several new mega-pixel handsets in 2005 will set off the next big wave of buying," Jill Aldort, consultant at InfoTrends/CAP Ventures, said in a statement. "And higher resolutions will drive more printing from camera phones, which is good news for printing vendors."