PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA - JANUARY 24, Pirates striker Benni McCarthy take a photo with fans by a cellphone camera during the Orlando Pirates coaching clinic and meeting the children of Holy Trinity Secondary School in Winterveld on January 24, 2012 in Pretoria, South Africa Photo by Frennie Shivambu / Gallo Images PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA - JANUARY 24, Pirates striker Benni McCarthy take a photo with fans by a cellphone camera during the Orlando Pirates coaching clinic and meeting the children of Holy Trinity Secondary School in Winterveld on January 24, 2012 in Pretoria, South Africa Photo by Frennie Shivambu / Gallo Images
While most attention in the gadget world is on the breakneck pace of innovation in cellphones, tablets and computers, another device has resolutely refused to die: the camera.
Despite the onslaught of camera phones, cameras are still being sold. Japan, the world’s largest manufacturer, shipped nearly three times as many cameras in January as it did in the same month of 2003, when the camera phone was still in its infancy.
“For several years, it has been predicted that smartphone adoption would cut into digital camera sales,” said Prashant Malaviya, associate professor of Marketing at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. “The exact opposite has happened.”
Driving this are many factors, analysts say.
While most point to a continuing role for cameras for professional and personal users, the device’s future is far from assured.
First, photography is personal. We may be happy taking snaps with our cellphone or simple point-and-shoot camera, but it turns out that most of us won’t entrust key memories to such basic devices. Surveys by NPD In-Stat last November show that while more than a quarter of all American photos were taken by a smartphone, more people were buying cameras with detachable lenses or cameras with optical zooms of 10x or more.
This, says NPD In-Stat senior digital imaging analyst Liz Cutting, is because people taking family photos don’t want to trust them to a device that isn’t up to the task.
“Camera photography is not dead,” said Cutting. “We’re just seeing a skewing towards what the smartphone can’t deliver. People are recognising that and are going for a higher-end camera.”
This benefits the established players, because users are reluctant to entrust their photos to an untested brand. We may be ready to try out a new brand of cellphone, laptop or TV, but when it comes to family snaps, we’re more conservative.
This has helped entrench several key players – Canon Inc, Nikon Corp, Sony Corp, Olympus Corp, Pentax, Fuji and Panasonic Corp.
Canon has been one of the main beneficiaries of this, maintaining a strong brand from the professional high end to the point-and-shoot bottom, says Christopher Chute, global imaging chief at International Data Corp.
Panasonic, Olympus, Pentax and Nikon have in the past few years launched a new kind of camera that matches the quality of lenses of a professional model with the sleek, light body of a pocket, point-and-shoot device. Although they aren’t a lot cheaper than the professional digital single lens reflex (DSLR) model, they are lighter and more compact.
Camera manufacturers are also battling the encroachment of camera phones on to their territory.
Nokia and other mobile manufacturers have long partnered with lens makers to improve the quality of photographs and phones. The appeal of the camera phone has also grown as social media services like Facebook make it possible to share a photo with friends and family as soon as it’s taken.
This leaves the point-and-shoot camera segment of the market vulnerable.
Manufacturers are also competing through innovation. There have been improvements in sensors and a technology called high dynamic range (HDR) imaging, which layers images at different exposures.
J Gerry Purdy, of cellphone analysts MobileTrax, said these innovations may usher in a future where a smartphone camera “will perform as well as today’s digital cameras” – Reuters