Digital Camera Market Is
Booming
In the first half of 2005, there was a substantial 89% sales growth in the
Polish digital camera market. Though the market grew at half the rate of the
first half of 2004, it still shows a huge potential for development.
A compact digital camera segment, the biggest digital camera market segment
with a 98% share in terms of sold units, saw a considerable shift in demand
towards the categories offering higher-resolution images. Almost 40% of
compact digital cameras sold in the first half of 2005 were equipped with a
4-megapixel matrix. More remarkably, the market share of 5-megapixel cameras
doubled to 24%, while the share of 3-megapixel category the largest
segment in the first half of 2004 slumped from 48% to 27%.
A reflex digital camera segment also grew robustly, nearly four times the rate
of the previous year. The increased popularity of the category is to be
attributed to the increasingly wider range of reflex digital camera models
available in the market which therefore pushed prices down by 30%.
The surge in popularity of digital cameras with Poles is predominantly a
result of huge price cutting (in average by 20%), but extended functionality
and improved technical parameters like matrix and LCD display with higher
resolution, menu in Polish and thematic exposure modes are also of great role.
Another reason for the growing appeal of the product is that customers are
able to process, store and transfer photos with increasing simplicity.
Additionally, camera users have now much more opportunity to develop digital
photos at numerous photo service outlets, via the Internet or just print
on paper by themselves.
As a result of growing competition and more demand digital camera products
have become more available than ever, with a wide variety of models sold at
increasingly greater number of photo and computer outlets, as well as
household goods/electronics stores.
Considering the factors above and the fact that price wars between large
retailers intensifies before Christmas there are reasonable grounds for
expecting that the sales of digital cameras will reach at least one million
units in Poland in 2005.
Analogue Camera Market Is Shrinking
The year 2005 is another consecutive year of a market decline for analogue
photography. The sales of traditional film-based cameras plummeted 40% during
the first half of 2005. The trend could not be even reversed with a strong 25%
price decrease. Along with the shrinking sales of the film-based camera, the
camera film market is also suffering a decline, with the sales figure down by
25% compared the first half of 2004, but, in this case, prices were reduced
only by 12%.
Parallel to the rapid development of the digital camera market and other
related markets of digital devices, sales of traditional cameras and camera
films will continue to fall. Like in other market segments of consumer
electronics, a launch of new technology makes the old one obsolescent.
For more information please
contact:
gfkms_pl_pho@gfkms.com
