In 2014, there will be 2.25 billion picture-taking devices sold . According to a slide shown by Christian Müller-Rieker, the Executive Director of the Photoindustrie-Verband (The German Imaging Association), this will be a 9% increase over the 2.05 billion sold during 2013.
Overwhelming numbers
What is even more spectacular is the huge difference between smartphones and traditional cameras. For 2013, only 83 million of global sales were of digital cameras ( Dslr, point and shoot) versus 1.948 billion for mobile ( smartphones and tablets). For anyone still doubting where the market is heading, this is a powerful reminder.
Those numbers, made public during a press conference in Beijing on April 16 promoting the Photokina ( the German Photo Show), also clearly show the aggressive rise of tablets , with a 10% average growth year per year, confirming something we wrote about recently.
What it doesn’t show
What is clearly missing here, obviously, is how many pictures are actually taken with various devices. One key reason for the increase in mobile device is that you would be hard pressed to find a phone, or a tablet, without a built-in camera. And it doesn’t mean that because it has one, it is being used. However, numbers from popular photo sharing sites like Instagram and Flickr clearly show that the vast majority of ~ 500 million images uploaded daily are taken with a mobile device.
Since these numbers only address the sales volume ( new units sold) , it excludes the already massive inventory of picture-taking devices already in existence. Dslr are kept and used for a longer time , much longer than the average 2 years of mobile.
The picture from here
With technology advancing quickly in making mobile devices as performant than cameras, this trend will keep on accelerating. The only remaining reason for people to purchase and use digital cameras lies in the huge difference in lens quality, a barrier in the process of being broken. Light-field as well as coded lens technology, still in their infancy, offer a strong alternative to bulky glass lenses, if they can be squeezed in small spaces.
Author: Paul Melcher
Paul Melcher is the founder of Kaptur and Managing Director of Melcher System, a consultancy for visual technology firms. He is an entrepreneur, advisor, and consultant with a rich background in visual tech, content licensing, business strategy, and technology with more than 20 years experience in developing world-renowned photo-based companies with already two successful exits.