Graywolf wrote: > Wow! They are selling more $850 digitals than $6 disposables. Who > would have figured? Or, is that liar's do figure? Now, if they said the > digital is more of a yuppy status symbol than an SLR, I would have > no problem with that.
Hi Tom, Interesting question -- I wonder about that myself. (Yeah, I know you were being facetious, but you bring up a good point worth serious consideration.) I'm thinking in terms of US dollars and the US market here, but it probably applies in other markets and currencies as well. With so many decent P&S digital cameras now in the $400-to-$600 range, it wouldn't surprise me if consumers are buying more digitals than they are buying $300-to-$450 conventional SLR packages. And I'll bet that's "more" in terms of actual number of cameras sold, rather than just "more" in terms of sales dollars. Is it possible that total sales ~dollars~ spent per year on digital cameras now exceeds total sales ~dollars~ spent per year on disposable film cameras? Hmmm.... I don't know about that one -- it might very well be getting ~near~ that point. Perhaps it's even exceeding that point in some markets. After all, you'd have to sell only one $600 digital to equal the sales volume of 100 $6 disposables. However, I (like you) would really be amazed if the actual ~number~ of digital cameras sold per year now exceeds the ~number~ of disposable film cameras sold per year. I just can't see that ever happening, for the simple reason that a consumer of a disposable camera -- by definition -- throws the camera away when he/she is done using it, but the consumer of a digital camera presumably buys a camera once and only once. (Or maybe once every few years.) Eventually, you would think that the market for digital cameras would reach saturation, and sales would level off to a steady -- and quite possibly very low -- value. I don't think the corporate behemoths -- Kodak, HP, Olympus, etc. -- will ever make a decent profit selling digital cameras. I think they'll continue to willingly succumb to price erosion in order to meet their sales growth targets, and they'll exit the camera manufacturing business once the market reaches saturation. The real profits in digital, I believe, will be in ink and paper -- just as the real profits in conventional silver halide photography have been in film. And as long as there is a large consumer segment for which even a $50 digicam is out of reach, I think there will continue to be a profitable market for disposable film cameras for a long time to come. Which hopefully means a supply of reasonably inexpensive conventional film for a long time to come. I hope.... ;-) Bill Peifer Rochester, NY - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
