Have Digital Camera Sales Bottomed Out?

Source: Statista

“The best camera is the one that’s with you”. This phrase, coined by the award-winning photographer Chase Jarvis, probably best describes the impact that smartphone cameras had and still have on the world of photography. The cameras built into our phones may still be inferior to dedicated digital cameras in general and SLR cameras in particular, but they are constantly getting closer and they have the priceless advantage of always being within reach.

When the first touchscreen smartphones made waves in 2007 and 2008, the camera industry was doing very well. In 2008, members of the CIPA, an association of the world’s most renowned camera makers, shipped almost 120 million digital cameras and probably didn’t worry too much about the upcoming competition. Back then, smartphone cameras were no match in terms of image quality and photo apps such as Instagram or Snapchat hadn’t been invented yet.

10 years later, the situation of the camera industry looks very different. Not only do most people always have their smartphone with them, but the lenses and sensors built into mobile phones are getting better and better. Having raced to ever-higher megapixel counts in the early years of the smartphone boom, recent developments have focused on improving performance in low-light conditions, where the difference between smartphones and dedicated cameras used to be most obvious. As our chart illustrates, global camera shipments by CITA members dropped by nearly 80 percent since peaking in 2010. On a positive note, it appears that the industry managed to stop the bleeding in 2017, when shipments improved by 3 percent after five consecutive years of double-digit declines.

Digital Camera Sales Infographic

The Smartphone’s Victims

As the mobile industry is gathering in Barcelona this week to show off the latest trends in smartphone technology, it’s time to spare a thought for those devices that have fallen victim to the smartphone’s unstoppable rise.

Ten years ago – the iPhone had just been unveiled but was yet to be unleashed on the world – we used to rely on a variety of devices to help us complete different tasks. Most of us had a mobile phone to text and make calls, an MP3 player to listen to music, a digital camera to take vacation pictures and a navigation system to help us find our vacation home in the first place. What a difference ten years make. These days, we only need one device to do all of the above and sales of non-smartphone gadgets have subsequently plummeted.

The below chart, based on data from the Consumer Electronics Association, shows how far sales of devices with more limited functionalities have dropped at the hand of smartphones and their many talents.

This chart shows how electronic devices sales have changed since the smartphone boom started 10 years ago.

Infographic: The Smartphone's Victims | Statista You will find more statistics at Statista

Are Smartphones Killing Digital Cameras?

“The best camera is the one that’s with you”. This phrase, coined by the award-winning photographer Chase Jarvis, probably best describes the impact that smartphone cameras had and still have on the world of photography. The cameras built into our phones may still be inferior to dedicated digital cameras in general and SLR cameras in particular, but they are constantly getting closer and they have the priceless advantage of always being within reach.

When the first touchscreen smartphones made waves in 2007 and 2008, the camera industry was doing very well. In 2008, members of the CIPA, an association of the world’s most renowned camera makers, shipped almost 120 million digital cameras and probably didn’t worry too much about the upcoming competition. Back then, smartphone cameras were no match in terms of image quality and photo apps such as Instagram or Snapchat hadn’t been invented yet.

Less than 10 years later, the situation of the camera industry looks very different. At the same time as smartphones became more and more ubiquitous, the lenses and sensors built into them became ever more powerful. The soon-to-be-released iPhone 7 Plus has two camera lenses, bringing its capabilities even closer to those of sophisticated SLR cameras. As our chart illustrates, the camera industry could be in serious trouble as a consequence. In 2016, CIPA members shipped 24.2 million digital cameras, down 80 percent from peak sales in 2010 – the year that Instagram was launched.

This chart shows how many digital cameras the world’s largest camera vendors shipped between 2003 and 2016.

Infographic: Are Smartphones Killing Digital Cameras? | Statista You will find more statistics at Statista