It’s a modern paradox: People are taking more photographs than ever before, nearly 400 billion this year, yet sales of cameras are shrinking.
Overall, global shipments of digital cameras have fallen 30 percent this year, according to Christopher Chute, research director of worldwide digital imaging at IDC, a market intelligence firm. Camera stores are closing, and those that remain are emphasizing customer service or high-end products as they fight to stay relevant.
“It’s especially shocking because this was a market that until recently was growing by double digits,” he said. “This is the beginning of the collapse for cameras.”
And the obvious reason for the decline? The ubiquitous smartphone – a combination mobile phone, personal computer, data storage unit and camera, small enough to fit in a pocket. Nearly 60 percent of U.S. homes now have one, compared with 70 percent of homes that own more than one camera, according to The NPD Group.
But while digital camera sales fell by nearly a third this year, smartphone sales are expected to rise more than 32 percent.
Amanda Brady recently purchased Nokia’s new Lumia 1020 smartphone with a camera that sports 41 megapixels. She uses it for shots of her artwork to put on Etsy.com but also for nature pics during a recent family vacation to the Black Hills.
“We print quite often, and they don’t look pixelated,” she said.
It’s a culture shift that many believe started with the release of Apple’s iPhone 4 and 4S in 2010-11, the first smartphones to have a backlit-illuminated sensor to produce brighter pictures with accurate colors to rival the quality of a decent point-and-shoot.
While sales of point-and-shoots have dropped the most, sales of single lens reflex cameras also have started to decline, although not as much. Sales through October were down 8 percent this year, said Ben Arnold, industry analyst at The NPD Group in Virginia.
Camera manufacturers such as Canon and Nikon, whose stocks have lost more than half their value since the iPhone was introduced in 2007, have tried to stop the free fall with aggressive markdowns. The lower prices were expected to increase sales nearly 10 percent, Arnold said, but sales on digital single-lens reflex cameras increased only 1 percent compared to last year.
While many in the camera industry were hoping that consumers would continue to buy traditional cameras for lasting, better-quality pictures, Chute said that’s not happening. Consumers don’t care as much about image quality as they do the software that allows them unlimited, immediate sharing on social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, mobile image editing and manipulation, and cloud-based backup. “Image quality is now second to connectivity to Web services like Facebook,” he said.
One Minnesota specialty retailer, National Camera Exchange, isn’t ready to accept that. It’s pouring talent and resources into enlightening customers about what they’re missing by using only a smartphone. When National Camera Exchange President Jon Liss shows young parents close-ups taken with an SLR of a friend’s daughter swinging the bat during a T-ball game, they ask how he did it.
“They don’t know that these cameras are better,” he said.
Still, smartphone camera technology continues to improve.
Brady, 34, said she’s never going back to a traditional camera. She recently took a picture of her son caroling at a nursing home from 40 feet away. “I leaned in, zoomed in, took the shot, edited it, and I was done,” she said. “I didn’t have to watch the rest through a little lens. I could actually enjoy the show,” she said.
Brady said that even if she went on the trip of a lifetime and got to see every church in Italy, she’d pack her smartphone, not a standard camera. “I love my Nokia,” she said.
Even though overall camera sales are declining, analysts aren’t expecting big-box retailers to shutter their photographic departments yet. Instead, they’re shrinking the number of camera options, even in accessories, said Brian Yarbrough, a retail analyst at Edward Jones. Retailers are de-emphasizing camera departments by putting them in less-desirable parts of the store and putting the spotlight on higher-profit-margin items such as smartphones and tablets.
Few are predicting that traditional cameras will go the way of the eight-track tape, but higher-quality point-and-shoot and SLR cameras will become more of a niche business for hard-core enthusiasts. Retailers are hoping that some customers will still want a piece of hardware to record memorable events.
Linda Engelbert Lane said that she loves her cellphone pictures but there are times when something nicer is better. “I want a better camera for family gatherings,” she said. “As people get older, I want a guarantee of a good shot.”
Overall, global shipments of digital cameras have fallen 30 percent this year, according to Christopher Chute, research director of worldwide digital imaging at IDC, a market intelligence firm. Camera stores are closing, and those that remain are emphasizing customer service or high-end products as they fight to stay relevant.
“It’s especially shocking because this was a market that until recently was growing by double digits,” he said. “This is the beginning of the collapse for cameras.”
And the obvious reason for the decline? The ubiquitous smartphone – a combination mobile phone, personal computer, data storage unit and camera, small enough to fit in a pocket. Nearly 60 percent of U.S. homes now have one, compared with 70 percent of homes that own more than one camera, according to The NPD Group.
But while digital camera sales fell by nearly a third this year, smartphone sales are expected to rise more than 32 percent.
Amanda Brady recently purchased Nokia’s new Lumia 1020 smartphone with a camera that sports 41 megapixels. She uses it for shots of her artwork to put on Etsy.com but also for nature pics during a recent family vacation to the Black Hills.
“We print quite often, and they don’t look pixelated,” she said.
It’s a culture shift that many believe started with the release of Apple’s iPhone 4 and 4S in 2010-11, the first smartphones to have a backlit-illuminated sensor to produce brighter pictures with accurate colors to rival the quality of a decent point-and-shoot.
While sales of point-and-shoots have dropped the most, sales of single lens reflex cameras also have started to decline, although not as much. Sales through October were down 8 percent this year, said Ben Arnold, industry analyst at The NPD Group in Virginia.
Camera manufacturers such as Canon and Nikon, whose stocks have lost more than half their value since the iPhone was introduced in 2007, have tried to stop the free fall with aggressive markdowns. The lower prices were expected to increase sales nearly 10 percent, Arnold said, but sales on digital single-lens reflex cameras increased only 1 percent compared to last year.
While many in the camera industry were hoping that consumers would continue to buy traditional cameras for lasting, better-quality pictures, Chute said that’s not happening. Consumers don’t care as much about image quality as they do the software that allows them unlimited, immediate sharing on social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, mobile image editing and manipulation, and cloud-based backup. “Image quality is now second to connectivity to Web services like Facebook,” he said.
One Minnesota specialty retailer, National Camera Exchange, isn’t ready to accept that. It’s pouring talent and resources into enlightening customers about what they’re missing by using only a smartphone. When National Camera Exchange President Jon Liss shows young parents close-ups taken with an SLR of a friend’s daughter swinging the bat during a T-ball game, they ask how he did it.
“They don’t know that these cameras are better,” he said.
Still, smartphone camera technology continues to improve.
Brady, 34, said she’s never going back to a traditional camera. She recently took a picture of her son caroling at a nursing home from 40 feet away. “I leaned in, zoomed in, took the shot, edited it, and I was done,” she said. “I didn’t have to watch the rest through a little lens. I could actually enjoy the show,” she said.
Brady said that even if she went on the trip of a lifetime and got to see every church in Italy, she’d pack her smartphone, not a standard camera. “I love my Nokia,” she said.
Even though overall camera sales are declining, analysts aren’t expecting big-box retailers to shutter their photographic departments yet. Instead, they’re shrinking the number of camera options, even in accessories, said Brian Yarbrough, a retail analyst at Edward Jones. Retailers are de-emphasizing camera departments by putting them in less-desirable parts of the store and putting the spotlight on higher-profit-margin items such as smartphones and tablets.
Few are predicting that traditional cameras will go the way of the eight-track tape, but higher-quality point-and-shoot and SLR cameras will become more of a niche business for hard-core enthusiasts. Retailers are hoping that some customers will still want a piece of hardware to record memorable events.
Linda Engelbert Lane said that she loves her cellphone pictures but there are times when something nicer is better. “I want a better camera for family gatherings,” she said. “As people get older, I want a guarantee of a good shot.”