U.S. Imaging Market Growth Spurred by DSLRs and Accessories

[Tami]

U.S. Imaging Market Growth Spurred by DSLRs and Accessories

COLOGNE, GERMANY, September 23, 2008 – While sales in the U.S. digital camera market are showing signs of slowing down, the market is still growing, most notably within the digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) segment. According to leading U.S. market research company, The NPD Group’s retail tracking service, total digital camera sales for the first half of 2008, increased 6 percent in units and declined 1 percent in dollars. Point-and-shoot camera sales rose 5 percent in units and dropped 8 percent in revenue. But DSLR unit sales are gaining ground. In the first half of 2008, DSLR dollars comprised 30 percent of total digital camera dollar sales and 8 percent of units. DSLR units on their own rose 23 percent and dollars increased 20 percent. This good news among high-end cameras is even better against the context of an overall slower technology market in a slack economy.

“DSLRs are increasingly becoming a more important piece of the total digital camera revenue picture,” said Liz Cutting, senior imaging analyst for NPD. “Add to that the fact that there is a greater attach rate of accessories, and a more active printing consumer, and retailers and manufacturers have the perfect opportunity to capture loyalty among a growing lucrative consumer base.”

Even though digital cameras are inching towards household saturation, with a digital camera in 75 percent of households, according to NPD’s Household Penetration Study: Ownership Landscape 2008, consumers continue to buy more. Repeat buyers in the first half of 2008 made up 58 percent of all units among individuals buying for themselves, according to NPD’s consumer tracking service. The percentage of those who are adding on to their existing actively used digital cameras was just over a quarter of all units, demonstrating that individual penetration still has room to grow over household penetration.

Lens and digital picture frames are also contributing to the success of the imaging market. According to NPD’s retail tracking service, lenses grew 19 percent in both units and dollars in the first half of 2008. Digital picture frames are still a hot growth category, growing 48 percent in units and 36 percent in dollars.

Printing hardware and consumable purchases have continued to soften. Multi-function printers, once the hot spot of printer growth, grew less than one percent in units in the first half of 2008, but was still among the top 10 revenue producing categories for the first half of 2008, according to NPD’s retail tracking service. Photo size (snapshot) printers were down 44 percent in units from prior year. Inkjet photo paper declined 20 percent in sheets from the first half of 2007. NPD’s consumer panel indicates that consumers 55 years and older had a much higher incidence of printer and consumable purchases than of other devices, such as digital cameras. And in a late 2007 NPD imaging study, recent digital camera buyers under the age of 30 were the most likely not to be printing their images at all.

“Digital cameras will continue to be a top technology category,” said Cutting. “The base of imaging consumers and the number of images captured per consumer will keep expanding, creating demand for a simple flow of improved storage, display, and printing solutions that suit a consumer increasingly accustomed to multimedia richness.”