Camera Phones Killing the Digital Camera Business?
Posted by Mark Levy | Posted in Articles, Digital Cameras, Mobile, Statistics | Posted on 31-01-2007
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The Camera and Imaging Products Association announced today that growth in digital camera shipments by Japanese makers in 2007 is expected to slow to 7.5 percent from a year earlier, when lower prices and a wider variety of models with interchangeable lenses spurred growth to 22 percent. The association did not provide any indication of why the slowdown will occur, but a likely culprit is the increase in sales of mobile camera phones. Projected shipments for camera phones by 2009 is over 900 million units.
A recent study by the Consumer Electronics Association says that 9% of pictures taken today are taken with a camera phone. So far, people seem to be switching between their camera phone and digital camera — taking photos at different times with different cameras.
However, this might change. The article says Tim Herbert, senior director of market research at CEA, predicts that as camera phones improve with three megapixel (and better) resolution, better storage and additional features, more people might use only camera phones for taking photos.