What does the future hold for dedicated camera sales?
Discussion
I came across this article by Keith Cooper at North Light Images and found it rather interesting. Basically dedicated cameras sales are not going too well for the manufacturers and the reasons for that are as yet not entirely clear but there are several possibilities.
Several of the links in the article are quite enlightening including the one to the CIPA sales spread sheet. It goes to a a report from the middle of the year. The figures through to September 2013 are here
Is seems that the European market (where the boundaries are is not mentioned) is not a little bigger than the USA and that Asia, even excluding Japan, is still relatively strong.
The comments for the North Light article are interesting though nothing much different to things briefly discussed here before.
Unless there is some remarkably disruptive advancement in technology to re-invigorate the market one could see this as a rational situation as people discover that their snappery needs can be satisfied by their smartphones at one end of the market and their existing dSLRs at the other. If you feel your phone is now 'good enough' the is little pressure to buy a pocketable camera and similarly a dSLR from any time around the mid 00s onwards will probably suffice very well for most things most people seem to want from them. Especially if they never leave the cupboard in which they are kept and I suspect the majority don't.
The numbers in the reports are not small drops. They represent huge changes in shipments year on year. Anyone up for predicting the future - say 2 to 3 years out from now? Then follow the results to see who got closest to the actual numbers?
Several of the links in the article are quite enlightening including the one to the CIPA sales spread sheet. It goes to a a report from the middle of the year. The figures through to September 2013 are here
Is seems that the European market (where the boundaries are is not mentioned) is not a little bigger than the USA and that Asia, even excluding Japan, is still relatively strong.
The comments for the North Light article are interesting though nothing much different to things briefly discussed here before.
Unless there is some remarkably disruptive advancement in technology to re-invigorate the market one could see this as a rational situation as people discover that their snappery needs can be satisfied by their smartphones at one end of the market and their existing dSLRs at the other. If you feel your phone is now 'good enough' the is little pressure to buy a pocketable camera and similarly a dSLR from any time around the mid 00s onwards will probably suffice very well for most things most people seem to want from them. Especially if they never leave the cupboard in which they are kept and I suspect the majority don't.
The numbers in the reports are not small drops. They represent huge changes in shipments year on year. Anyone up for predicting the future - say 2 to 3 years out from now? Then follow the results to see who got closest to the actual numbers?
LongQ said:
I came across this article by Keith Cooper at North Light Images and found it rather interesting. Basically dedicated cameras sales are not going too well for the manufacturers and the reasons for that are as yet not entirely clear but there are several possibilities.
Several of the links in the article are quite enlightening including the one to the CIPA sales spread sheet. It goes to a a report from the middle of the year. The figures through to September 2013 are here
Is seems that the European market (where the boundaries are is not mentioned) is not a little bigger than the USA and that Asia, even excluding Japan, is still relatively strong.
The comments for the North Light article are interesting though nothing much different to things briefly discussed here before.
Unless there is some remarkably disruptive advancement in technology to re-invigorate the market one could see this as a rational situation as people discover that their snappery needs can be satisfied by their smartphones at one end of the market and their existing dSLRs at the other. If you feel your phone is now 'good enough' the is little pressure to buy a pocketable camera and similarly a dSLR from any time around the mid 00s onwards will probably suffice very well for most things most people seem to want from them. Especially if they never leave the cupboard in which they are kept and I suspect the majority don't.
The numbers in the reports are not small drops. They represent huge changes in shipments year on year. Anyone up for predicting the future - say 2 to 3 years out from now? Then follow the results to see who got closest to the actual numbers?
Interesting article LQ Several of the links in the article are quite enlightening including the one to the CIPA sales spread sheet. It goes to a a report from the middle of the year. The figures through to September 2013 are here
Is seems that the European market (where the boundaries are is not mentioned) is not a little bigger than the USA and that Asia, even excluding Japan, is still relatively strong.
The comments for the North Light article are interesting though nothing much different to things briefly discussed here before.
Unless there is some remarkably disruptive advancement in technology to re-invigorate the market one could see this as a rational situation as people discover that their snappery needs can be satisfied by their smartphones at one end of the market and their existing dSLRs at the other. If you feel your phone is now 'good enough' the is little pressure to buy a pocketable camera and similarly a dSLR from any time around the mid 00s onwards will probably suffice very well for most things most people seem to want from them. Especially if they never leave the cupboard in which they are kept and I suspect the majority don't.
The numbers in the reports are not small drops. They represent huge changes in shipments year on year. Anyone up for predicting the future - say 2 to 3 years out from now? Then follow the results to see who got closest to the actual numbers?
Think he's hit the nail on the head - vis a vis the point about how much better the latest generations of camera are compared to earlier ones eg would you really fork out for a 700d over a 600d (or for that matter a 70d over a 600d!). I predict the rate of decline will slow down and eventually level off.
Whilst I can understand the trend I can say I am quite surprised, the number of friends and family who have gone and bought dslrs recently is huge, they see good shots taken on dslrs and assume it is the camera that makes the difference, rather that the reality is that those who put a lot of effort into photography are usually the ones using dslrs rather than it being the camera improving the shot.
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