Camera Unit Sales Show Strong Growth, Dollars Lag

By Staff On Dec 3 2007 - 8:00am

A pair of reports from IDC and The NPD Group showed that digital camera sales continued to enjoy double-digit growth, although the category's revenue has not kept pace.

NPD's retail tracking service found camera unit growth up 20 percent through the last 12 months, ended September, but dollar growth was only 3 percent during the same time frame.

Digital camera accessories, however, saw revenue growth of 50 percent. D-SLR owners are more likely to purchase camera accessories, NPD reported. While consumers are gobbling up accessories, they're largely doing so after their camera purchase. According to NPD, 69 percent of point-and-shoot camera owners and 54 percent of d-SLR buyers did not buy additional accessories with their camera purchase.

IDC reported third-quarter camera shipments rose 22 percent to 8.4 million, thanks to a "robust replacement rate driven by color, optical image stabilization and … pricing moves."

Canon again shipped the most cameras, owning 23 percent of the market. Sony (18 percent) and Kodak (15 percent) followed, IDC reported, while Samsung saw a steep drop of 50 percent over the quarter, falling from an 11 percent share, to a 4 percent share.