In the past year or so, the digital camera industry has been on a sudden decline. I, along with many others, see more and more cameras stay on the shelves for longer and longer, and while people still buy these bulky devices, the death of the consumer digital industry will inevitably come. The reason is the fact that we don’t need to buy an external camera anymore since we have pretty capable cameras on us already. An astonishing 46% of people use some sort of smart phone. All these smart phones have a camera on them. 46% of people already have a camera in a device that they use daily.
This statistic only grows year after year since it was about 39% this time last year. So with all these smartphones, the camera industry looks to be in bad shape, maybe not even now, but in coming years when that statistic goes up and the number of megapixels that mobile phones can carry increase (Nokia already has a 41Mp phone). The reason that Apple is a global leader in this is because, essentially they created the smartphone category, or at least how we know it today, they were the first ones to have a smartphone that not only was a joy to use, but one of the first to have a camera built in. Everyone else (I.E Google Android) just took Apple’s lead, just like every other technology company does.
You have Apple who in October released the iPhone 4S, the main feature that everyone oohed and ahhed about was Siri. Don’t get me wrong, Siri is great! But one feature that kind of got over looked was the 8MP camera. The MP on my stand along camera, along with many others on the market don’t even come close to that. My camera is 6MP at the most. I would rather save up a bit more money and get something a lot more functional. I believe that the digital camera industry will come to an end. Just look at Eastman Kodak, one of ten most respected camera companies in the world, just filed for bankruptcy.
Don’t get me wrong, the professional DSLR camera industry will continue to thrive for a long time since smart phones have not reached that capability yet, and probably won’t for a long time. However, I feel that the end of the digital camera is near. To reaffirm this, what do you see people taking pictures and video with more, digital cameras or smartphones? I’m betting your answer is smartphones, and you would most certainly be right.