Smartphones have been posing a threat to compact cameras for quite some time now, but the new Galaxy Camera from Samsung has now pushed Canon and Nikon to come out with products with similar features.
The Galaxy is an android-based camera that lets the user share a photo on various social media websites directly from the camera once the picture is clicked.
Alok Bharadwaj, senior VP at Canon India, credited this shift in the industry to changing consumer behaviour. “We have a few models that let users share pictures, but this is something that will be present in most of the cameras that we are going to come up with in the next fiscal. Consumer needs are evolving and we have to keep on working to meet them,” said Bharadwaj.
The rising popularity of smartphones is forcing traditional camera manufacturers to reassess their strategies by offering devices that can, for example, connect to the internet easily. Nikon had released the S800c, a compact camera powered by Google's android system, which allows users to download applications that can help email and share images on social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Flickr.
Year 2012 saw launches of smartphones loaded with breakthrough camera capabilities and that tripped the compact digital camera segment from a 40 per cent annual growth over three years to a muted 5 per cent during the first nine months of the previous calender year. And even the recent festive season did not help much.
The compact camera segment is estimated to be around 3.3 million units and has witnessed a lukewarm growth so far but on the other hand smart phone market is estimated to be around 18 million handsets and growing at a rate of 60 per cent
Nikon India, which has a daunting market share in the DSLRs (digital single reflex camera), claimed that they were the first one to bring in such technology in the industry “We were the pioneer this time also. We are closely looking at the market reactions and will be doling out more ‘connected cameras’ to feed the consumers needs,” Sajjan Kumar, GM of Nikon India told Business Standard. He indicated that pricing of these new genre of products would be critical.
The 0.17 million units strong DSLRs market has bucked this trend as a lot of amateurs are preferring DSLR for best quality. “DSLR have been growing over 50 per cent and by FY13 it would scale up to around .27 million units,” said Bharadwaj.
According to him, by 2014, most of the cameras will be enabled with features that keeps the user connected to the web. “Earlier it used to be click―print and store but now this is transforming into Click and share instantly.,” he said.
“We are already working to improve wi-fi connectivity through routers,” he added.
This wave of change is also seen by many as a possible threat to entry level compact cameras which may run out of steam in the long run. “The consumers have been adapting to changes positively. Our mirrorless range of cameras have also shown good growth last year as it gives superior quality with hassle free compact body,” added Kumar.
Among smartphones, the upper end of the market has the Nokia 808 PureView comes with a highresolution 41 megapixel sensor and at the lower end, Micromax sells a 5 megapixel camera phone at around Rs 6,000.
