Kodak was the big casualty in the digital camera war. They failed to change their direction away from film to digital. Kodak have even announced that their Kodak Gallery site is about to be closed meaning many families will lose al their picutres. It seems now though a change could be about to happen again with digital camera sales falling by nearly 30% in the past 5 years.

The simple reason for this happening is that smartphones now have cameras that are so advanced it makes most digital cameras not worth purchasing.. Apple’s iPhone and more recently the Samsung Galaxy series have cameras that are just as good as certain digital ones.

Retail analysts Mintel said that the digital camera market was worth £843 million 5 years ago but last year it had fallen quite dramatically to just £598 million. Sales of camcorders have also not escaped the downturn with a 21% fall in the last 5 years. The figures also showed that a huge 45% of people rely on their smart phone to take pics where as 40% use a digicam.

Samuel Gee, Mintel’s technology analyst, said: ‘Camera manufacturers must choose to either invest in a web service that complements captured photos or video, or to focus on including new, innovative hardware capabilities and modifications, to retain consumer interest.’

‘Although smartphone cameras do not typically match the quality of output of dedicated devices, the technology is consistently improving, as the quality of camera image output becomes too high for consumers to reliably distinguish between competitors.  As newer technology continues to improve the specifications of top-end equipment, measurements like megapixel density or the top level of optical zoom possible will become meaningless to consumers best served by less expensive, middle-of-the-field devices.’

We think manufacturer need to change with the times and offer more functionality and make them more appealing to make consumer want to go out and purchase one. Some example would be devices capable of taking 3-D still and videos.