Survey Says Cameraphones Drive Digital Camera Sales
from the say-cheese dept
Common thinking says that cameraphones are hurting digital camera sales, particularly as phone's image quality increases. But a new survey reports that more than a third of cameraphone owners expect to buy a standalone digital camera after being introduced to digital photography by their phone. Of course, it's possible that the other two-thirds of cameraphone owners will never buy a digital camera again, but the idea that cameraphones would be a "gateway gadget" seems plausible. While digital cameras will continue to command a significant amount of sales for some time, it's hard to see a market at the low end as 1- and 2-megapixel cameraphones become more and more commonplace. An additional finding of the survey is that, unsurprisingly, people still aren't printing photos from their phones. As the report nicely puts it, "end users have more reliable expectations regarding mobile imaging than vendors themselves." Sounds like people have figured out that if you want to print anything, a standalone camera is still the way to go.
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true - but only in one direction
However, as a keen photographer with more-than-adequate digital kit I consciously avoid getting a phone with a built-in camera. It's not a dedicated camera and so can't compete with my 'proper' digi camera. When shopping for a phone, I'd choose more useful features (e.g. bluetooth) over gimick (e.g. a camera)
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