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Digital camera brands should target Asia

To succeed in the digital camera brand-name business, Taiwanese companies should listen to what Asian customers need, a research firm said yesterday.

"They should learn the business models applied to cultures of different countries," Christopher Chute, International Data Corp's (IDC) senior research analyst, told a media gathering.

Chute said Taiwan's companies should start by forming a firmer foothold in the region, and take advantage of proximity and lower costs to lure Asian customers.

According to IDC, the local digital camera market is expected to expand by at least 10 percent this year. Last year, the sector grew 16 percent from the year earlier.

The global market is expected to report only single-digit growth for the next four years, he said.

Shipments of camera phones, meanwhile, are expected to expand by 84 percent in 2009, up from this year's 60 percent, generating a debate on whether more users will turn to camera phones and forgo digital cameras.

Chute said digital cameras will not be replaced by camera phones, as each offers different advantages.

In addition to the threat camera phones pose to the digital camera industry, more challenges are ahead, as there will be consolidation among digital camera vendors in the next two years, Chute said.

He expects this will cut the current 13 to 14 big international players down to under 10.
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