Point-&-Shoot DSC Sales Sustain Growth Levels

Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 9/21/2009

Sunnyvale, Calif. - A trends study by Retrevo Pulse has found that demand and prices for point-and-shoot digital cameras has held their ground through the summer of 2009, despite the declines that met the category a year ago.

Demand was also not substantially influenced by price promotions, the firm said, as prices have held steady throughout the year. Retrevo said consumers are showing a willingness to pay for innovative features, including face technology, image stabilization, higher resolution, HD video recording, larger displays and more compact packaging.

The study, which regularly tracks Internet-based product sales across a range of categories, said demand seems to be focused on the point-and-shoot segment of the digital camera market, adding that sales for digital-SLRs and many other CE categories are running pretty much flat or down from last year, and are not enjoying the same growth that the point-and-shoot segment has seen.

Point-and-shoot models are also holding up against competition from smartphones and/or camera phones that incorporate high-megapixel cameras, Retrevo said.

Manish Rathi, Retrevo co-founder and marketing VP, said last year's demand for digital cameras may have been abnormally pronounced due the collapsing economy, but demand is normally slow during the period between summer and holiday buying season.

"However, despite a continuing weak economy this year, we see unusually strong demand for digital cameras, particularly compact cameras," he said.

The firm predicts the demand will persist through the holiday buying season, which should mean "very strong holiday sales for compact, point-and-shoot digital cameras."