Consumers in India appear to be shifting their focus from camcorders to digital still cameras. Camcorder sales remained flat in 2008, recording single-digit growth rates, according to industry estimates.
As opposed to this, digital still cameras grew by nearly 40 per cent and the category is likely to maintain a growth rate of around 25 per cent this year.
The reason for the shift is simple. In a slowing economy, consumers appear to be looking for reliable yet inexpensive products to fulfil their digital needs. Digital still cameras incorporate high-end technology, allow for shorter films and, yet, are cheaper than camcorders, reasons an industry observer.
“The digital still camera is growing rapidly in the Indian market and taking share from the digital camcorder market based on its compact form factor, improvements in recording capabilities like zoom, editing software, etc, and the consumer preference for carrying a single image capturing device,” explained R Zutshi, deputy managing director, Samsung India.
Around 18.5 million camcorders were shipped worldwide in 2008, which was 4 per cent more than in 2007. However, the increase was mainly due to consumers opting for sub-$250 (less than Rs 10,000) compact flash camcorders, resulting in traditional market leaders losing market share and concentrating on digital still cameras. “Globally, this decline has been happening over the past two years and India seems to be following the trend,” said Alok Bharadwaj, senior vice-president, Canon India.
Camcorder technology has come a long way. The transition spans from analog format to digital to DVD recording to hard disk and now to flash memory.
“The technology changes have been really fast and hence the life cycle of camcorders fell, but the prices did not. A consumer is still skeptical of shelling out extra money for the same results a digital still camera can give,” said Bharadwaj.
“With the availability of easy-to-use photo and film editing software, along with video/photo sharing forums, consumers prefer taking shorter clips and stills and collate them to get a better result,” he added.
Going by the shift in consumer preference, Nikon has already rolled out a high-definition movie function in its SLRs (single lens reflex camera).
“A new market opportunity has opened up for cameras with such features, as it gives the consumer good quality for both pictures and videos,” said Hidehiko Tanaka, managing director, Nikon India.
The company plans to introduce more models with better video shooting options in both still and SLR categories in the future. However, players such as Sony continue to remain bullish on the prospects of high-definition (HD) camcorders.
“The trend away from analogue to digital signals was established quite a few years ago, ushering in the digital revolution. Today, both in still photography and video recording, the current mantra is HD — that is at the core of the consumer electronics industry,” said Sunil Nayyar, general manager, sales, Sony India.
He added that the lifestyle migration, the need to capture moments forever, affordability, accessibility and the retail boom will be some of the factors that will give a further fillip to both the digicam and the camcorder market.
