Consumers Want Expensive Compact And D SLR Says GFK

The compact digital camera market is set to fall by over 11 per cent in 2010, claims GFK; however, sales of digital SLR cameras and expensive compact cameras are set to grow.GFK also claimed that Australia is now leading the world in the expansion of photo processing kiosks into retail locations, with stores like Harvey Norman set to add further to the kiosks they already have.

At a GFK conference in Europe, researchers claimed that SLR trends look good for 2010, which is more than they could say for compact camera sales, which are being impacted by a new generation of mobile phones with up to 12 megapixel cameras built in.

GFK claim that the D-SLRS market is continuing to grow in many markets including Australia, Switzerland and Asia.

As for the compact camera market sales have been “less satisfactory”, says GFKs with sharp declines in sales almost everywhere. They have been particularly sharp in Europe, where there has been a decline of 40 per cent in value, said executives from the European research Company.

One piece of good news is that sales of expensive cameras, which are “well equipped with advanced features”, are growing. In Japan, GFK claimed, sales of 12-megapixel compact cameras rose from 30 per cent in March 2009 to 50 per cent three months later.

“Looking at the categories and products that performed well in 2009, few can be linked to the traditional decade-long tenets of the electronics business: more, faster, better, cheaper,” remarked Pascal Bollon, GFK’s London based Global Director, Information Technology.

He pointed out that, in many areas, product saturation has been reached, and that many technical developments are not sufficient to encourage the consumer to think of replacing existing products. Nevertheless, Bollon argued, interest in and usage of consumer electronic products remains at a high level and this can be seen by continued high levels of sales of consumables such as ink cartridges.

But there are plenty of areas Bollon and others speakers emphasised where growth continued at a rapid rate.

Bollon said that the market for personalised photo products is expected to grow from $238 m back in 2003 to $5.6 bn in 2012. Shops with 20 kiosks are already quite common in Australia and the 40-kiosk shop is now appearing over the horizon.