The Digital Camera Market: An Economic Analysis and Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the digital camera market, examining its historical trends, current state, and future prospects. The report begins with an introduction to digital cameras and their evolution, followed by a presentation of market data, including sales figures and shipment trends. The analysis section delves into the factors influencing the market, such as the rise of smartphones with advanced camera capabilities, changes in consumer behavior, and technological advancements. It explores both demand-side factors, like tourism and social media, and supply-side factors, such as improvements in technology and production costs. The report highlights the decline in digital camera sales, especially due to the emergence of smartphones, and discusses the impact on DSLR cameras. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the shift in the market and the need for camera manufacturers to adapt to the changing landscape. References from various sources like Statista, GfK, and CIPA are included to support the analysis. This report is a valuable resource for understanding the economics of the digital camera market and its future.

Running head: MARKET ECONOMICS
Market Economics
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Data............................................................................................................................................2
Analysis......................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The product on which the following discussion is based on is digital camera. Digital
camera is type of camera, which is unlike the traditional camera that requires film reels. In
digital cameras, the main mechanism is to capture images in digital memory and thus it
removes the need for film washing and directly photos can be printed from digital memory.
The digital camera is meant for the professional photographers, travellers, passionate
photographers and other customers who buy cameras for general purpose. Market for digital
camera has seen its peak after the 2000s when it became cheaper and stayed up many years
until the mobile phones started to pack in with good camera lenses. The market for digital
camera has fell by manifolds, only the market for digital SLR has different and sustainable
market so far.
Data
Figure1: Digital camera data

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Source: (Statista.com, 2018)
The above figure show that the market for digital camera started expanding in the
early 2000s and it gradually increased over time. In 2003, 43.4 million units of digital camera
was sold and it recorded the highest sales in 2010 with sales unit of 121.5 million. After
2010, the digital camera market shrinks drastically and sales unit fell to 19.4 million in 2018.
According to a press release by GfK, it is found that the global sales of digital cameras fell in
the first half of the 2018 to € 3.9 billion. In compared to the last year sales value it is an 11
per cent decline. Apart from this, the number of unit sold has also dropped by 15 per cent
(Gfk.com, 2018). It is also been forecasted that the future market of the digital cameras is
going to decline further. In 2018, the value of digital camera market was around US$16.06
billion and it is going to decline by 11.07 per cent in the 5-year period from 2019 to 2024

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(Imarcgroup.com, 2019). In 2024, the digital camera market will reduce to the value of
US$7.9 billion.
Figure 2: Fall in Digital SLR camera
Source: (Cipa.jp, 2019)
Figure 3: Fall in shipment of Inter-changeable lens Digital SLR camera
Source: (Cipa.jp, 2019)
From the above two figure 2 and 3, it is observed that the shipment of DSLR cameras
has also decreased in 2019 in comparison to the previous years 2017 and 2018. DSLR

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cameras are meant for specialized purpose, even then, the sales of DSLR cameras are
declining and thus it is shocking.
Analysis
The digital camera industry is currently suffering from the decline in sales, as evident
from the data given above. Digital camera entered the global market in 1990s but at that time,
it was much expensive. With the passage of time and improvement in the technology, digital
camera became cheaper and in the early 2000s, people started preferring digital camera to
film camera due to its convenience and photo storing capacity. The demand of digital camera
kept on rising since then and recorded a steady market growth for a decade. The main
demand determinants for digital camera are the increase in tourism industry, increase in
photography-oriented industries and increase in social event celebrations. On the other hand,
the income of people has also increased over time hence consumption of goods other than
necessary goods has increased. One of the most important factors that led to the growth of
digital camera industry is advent of YouTube and internet. Easy access to internet and
vlogging has increased the need for cameras. Thus, the digital camera industry has seen steep
increase in market value and number of unit sold. The social networking sites and photo
sharing websites like shutter stock has encouraged budding photographers and many
photography enthusiasts and thus the sales of camera increased. The above are the demand
determinants that influenced the increase in market of the digital camera industry. It is not
only the demand side factors, which fuelled the expansion of digital camera market but the
contribution of supply side factors, are worth considering. The supply side factors that pushed
up the market of the digital cameras are improvement in technology, reduction in production
cost of manufacturing camera lenses, improvement in technology of memory card
production. The increased capacity of memory cards to store more photos has been on
advantage that boosted the sales of the digital cameras. The increase in income of the people

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in the highly populated countries like India and China has increased the demand for cameras
by manifolds. In 2013, the digital camera market in India was around ₹4000 crore including
both compact and digital SLR cameras (Businesstoday.in., 2013). It is evident from the value
of the market that how big the market was then. However, after 2010, the sale of digital
cameras started falling and cumulatively declined by 84 per cent in 2018. The main reason
for such decline in the market of the digital camera is regarded as the emergence of
smartphones that offered better mobile phones camera. With every passing year, camera
provided in smart phones has improved surprisingly. Previously, a smart phone that offered
good quality camera was available for price tag of $500 or more. Nowadays, a smartphone
with good quality camera can be purchased with $200 or less. Even smartphones come with
dual an triple camera facilities each having separate purpose like depth sensing, wide angle
photography and many more. Hence, it is easier for people to carry phone instead of camera.
Thus, it removed the necessity of carrying camera in the recent times. In premium quality
smartphones like Iphone, Samsung S series and note series, Huawei P30, Google pixel series
and Oneplus series one can get camera quality equivalent to digital SLR cameras (PetaPixel,
2018). The advent of Instagram, Facebook and the trend of photo sharing in the social media
has increased the demand for smartphones with camera, as carrying digital camera is not
always possible. The attachments and accessories for maximizing the utility of mobile phone
cameras has also influence the digital camera market. The accessories like gimble and selfie
stick has improved the photography method of smartphone cameras. On the other hand,
availability of drone cameras at low prices and go pro. Hence, the demand for digital cameras
has declined so largely. The flagship smartphones has beginning to affect the DSLR camera
market. From the data part, it is evident that there is a decline in the market of the DSLR
camera. However, there are no such supply side causes, which have affected the market for
the digital cameras. The decline in market demand of the digital camera is due to the

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invention of potential substitutes that offers much more features that exceeds the advantage
of purchasing digital camera.
Conclusion
The above discussion leads to the conclusion that the digital camera market has seen a
growth in the first decade of this millennium, but for the past one decade, the industry is
declining. The main reason of the decline in the market of the digital camera is found to be
invention of potential substitutes such as smartphones that offers high quality camera and
other features similar to a computer and thus it outweighs the need of camera by many points.
Hence, it is difficult for the camera manufacturers to cater the general customers. It is better
for them to target the customers that are associated with photography profession or any other
profession that require high-end DSLR cameras. There is no future for fixed lens digital
cameras and thus it is better to concentrate in the market of the DSLR cameras.

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References
Businesstoday.in. (2013). Growing market in DSLR cameras. Retrieved 18 July 2019, from
https://www.businesstoday.in/current/perspective/dslr-camera-india-market-vs-
compact-cameras/story/195994.html
Cipa.jp. (2019). Retrieved 18 July 2019, from http://www.cipa.jp/stats/documents/e/dw-
201905_e.pdf
Gfk.com. (2018). Premium products propping up global photography market. Retrieved 18
July 2019, from
https://www.gfk.com/fileadmin/user_upload/dyna_content/Global/documents/
Press_Releases/2018/20180924_PR_Photo_efin.pdf
Imarcgroup.com. (2019). Digital Camera Market Share, Trends and Forecast 2019-2024.
Retrieved 18 July 2019, from https://www.imarcgroup.com/digital-camera-market
PetaPixel. (2018). This is How Smartphone Cameras Have Improved in the Past 5 Years.
Retrieved 18 July 2019, from https://petapixel.com/2018/02/08/smartphone-cameras-
improved-past-5-years/
Statista.com. (2018). Infographic: Digital Camera Sales Dropped 84% Since 2010. Retrieved
18 July 2019, from https://www.statista.com/chart/5782/digital-camera-shipments/