According to latest figures from market research firm GfK, WiFi-enabled cameras marked 2012 with a two-fold increase in sales volume over the previous year, as consumers from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam gobbled up a total of 776,000 units last year.
Cameras that have WiFi capabilities have been in the market since as early as 2005, but it is only recently that the category has seen massive adoption from users, given the popularity of Internet-enabled devices. In 2012, a total of 160 models from manufacturers such as Canon, Samsung, Olympus and Nikon were being sold in the region.
“By December 2012, one in every three cameras sold in the region’s more technologically advanced markets of Singapore and Malaysia were equipped with the WiFi feature, contributing to nearly two-fifth of total dollar sales in the respective countries for that month,” observed Gerard Tan, Account Director for Digital Technology at GfK Asia.
By providing Internet connectivity in digital cameras, manufacturers allow users to instantly upload photos to various photo-sharing services, including social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
The innovation came as the digital camera market faced tough competition from smartphones, whose built-in cameras have been improving in recent years, and whose mobile operating systems allow the operation of apps that make photo uploads easier while on the go.
Samsung even stretched the concept further by releasing the Galaxy Camera, an 18-megapixel digital camera that runs on the Android operating system.
In an earlier interview, Samsung Philippines AV Business Unit Head Ariel Aras admitted that these new features found in digital cameras are the market’s way of responding to consumer demand, which is increasingly preferential for the ability to share photos instantly.
“[That is why] we are responding to the demand of consumers asking for WiFi technology [to be integrated in our cameras],” Arias said. “We will not only offer a great experience in taking photos, but seamless connectivity with other devices as well.”
GfK said that with stiff competition in the category, prices of WiFi-enabled cameras went down by at least 39 percent from 2011 to 2012, making the devices affordable to a wider range of consumers.
“The digital camera market is facing strong challenges from smartphones which today are able to offer comparable functions and good quality photos of as high as 13 megapixels,” Tan said. “The introduction of the WiFi feature in cameras is definitely a right step forward to stimulate and boost the camera market in this Internet age.”
IDC projected that in 2012, the number of connected devices such as WiFi-powered cameras that shipped worldwide had breached the 1 billion mark, or about 14 percent of the total world population today.
source: interaksyon.com
