Videogame
consoles and portable music players also struggle against smartphones
LiveMint, Hiroshi Hiyama, AFP, Nov 21 2012
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| Global shipments of digital cameras among Japanese firms tumbled about 42% in September from a year ago. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint. |
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Tokyo: The
soaring popularity of smartphones is crushing demand for point-and-shoot
cameras, threatening the once-vibrant sector as firms scramble to hit back with
web-friendly features and boost quality, analysts say.
A sharp
drop in sales of digital compact cameras marks them as the latest casualty of
smartphones as videogame consoles and portable music players also struggle
against the all-in-one features offered by the likes of Apple Inc.’s iPhone and
the Samsung Galaxy.
Just as
digital cameras all but destroyed the market for photographic film, the rapid
shift to picture-taking smartphones has torn into a camera sector dominated by
Japanese firms including Canon Inc., Olympus Corp., Sony Corp. and Nikon Corp.
“We may be
seeing the beginning of the collapse of the compact camera market,” said Nobuo
Kurahashi, analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities.
Figures
from Japan’s Camera and Imaging Products Association echo the analyst’s grim
prediction.
Global
shipments of digital cameras among Japanese firms tumbled about 42% in
September from a year ago to 7.58 million units, with compact offerings falling
48%, according to the Association.
Higher-end
cameras with detachable lenses fell a more modest 7.4% in that time, it said.
Part of the
decline was due to weakness in debt-hit Europe and a Tokyo-Beijing territorial
spat that has sparked a consumer boycott of Japan-brand products in the China
market.
But
smartphones have proved a mighty rival to point-and-shoot cameras, analysts
say, offering an all-in-one phone, computer and camera with comparatively high
quality pictures and Internet photo downloading.
Those
features have also dug into videogame makers such as Nintendo, which has just
released its new Wii U game console, as smartphone owners increasingly download
free online games or store music on the devices instead of using standalone MP3
players.
“The market
for compact digital cameras shrank at a faster speed and scale than we had
imagined as smartphones with camera functions spread around the world,” Olympus
president Hiroyuki Sasa told a news briefing this month.
Olympus
said its camera business lost money in its fiscal first-half due to the growing
popularity of camera-equipped smartphones, and a strong yen which makes
Japanese exports less competitive overseas.
Digital
camera firms have scaled back their sales targets for the fiscal year to March
in a “collapsing” market, said Tetsuya Wadaki, an analyst at Nomura Securities.
“Order
volumes at parts suppliers currently appear to be down more than 30% year-on-year,”
Wadaki said.
Firms are
scrambling to keep improving picture quality, offer features such as
water-proofing and expand their Internet features, like allowing users to share
pictures through social media networks.
Camera
makers say growth areas include emerging economies—where many own neither a
camera nor a smartphone—along with replacement demand among compact-camera
owners.
And the
fall-off in demand has not been as stark for the pricier detachable lens
cameras favoured by avid photographers and growing ranks of camera-buff
retirees, particularly in rapidly ageing Japan, they say.
Another
emerging battleground is for mirror-less cameras which can be made nearly as
small as compact cameras but with picture quality that rivals their bulkier
counterparts.
Canon
insists the market has not been abandoned to smartphones.
“Demand for
quality snapshots is there, like taking pictures of your friends’ weddings, an
overseas vacation, or your children,” a Canon spokesman said.
“We believe
there are many people who need compact cameras,” he added.
Mizuho
analyst Kurahashi acknowledged that compact cameras “will not disappear”.
“But we see
the current trend continuing as image quality in smartphone cameras steadily
improves,” he said.
“The
compact camera market is going to keep shrinking and it’s difficult to forecast
any immediate comeback, or have any optimism.” AFP
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