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DSC suppliers lure buyers with better features, resolution

With digital still camera sales expected to be flat next year, vendors are banking on models that offer unique features and higher resolutions to stimulate replacement demand.

"To entice buyers, future digital cameras have to offer more features and unique designs to meet individual needs," Jeon Yong-sung, president of Samsung Electronics Co's Taiwan branch, told reporters on the sidelines of a product launch yesterday.

Jeon said that Taiwanese are pioneers in the use of innovative technology gadgets, and each user category has differing needs, giving vendors more room to grow their businesses here.

Saturated market

The local DSC market has reached saturation with sales next year expected to be similar to this year at between 900,000 to 1 million units, said David Li (李正祜), a supervisor at Samsung Taiwan.

"The market is highly saturated now, so we hope replacement demand will stimulate growth," Li said.

Following its rivals Sony Corp and Casio Computer Co, Samsung debuted a 10-megapixel camera yesterday, along with two 7-megapixel models.

The 10-megapixel model, NV10, includes a Schneider 3X optical zoom lens, a 5X digital zoom and a 2.5-inch color display.

With a suggested retail price of NT$12,900 (US$388), the compact NV10 offers a touch pad interface and comes in a sleek, black aluminum case.

Designed to lure younger consumers, one of the 7-megapixel cameras can also double as an MP3 player.

With the aggressive promotion of its lineup, Samsung Taiwan said it aims to narrow the gap with other top brands and has set a sales target of 100,000 cameras next year, up from its projected sales of 40,000 units this year.

Top players

According to statistics from GfK Marketing Services, Sony is the leader in the local DSC market, followed by Nikon Corp, Canon Inc, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co and Casio.

The top four vendors have a combined share of 50 percent of the domestic market, it said.

With the market getting increasingly saturated, camera vendors are hoping to improve sales by stimulating replacement demand.

"Ten megapixels is already the top for high-end resolution consumer cameras," said Marty Kung (龔俊光), an analyst with Market Intelligence Center (資訊市場情報中心).

Six-megapixel models are the mainstream models, with 8 megapixels expected to take the spotlight next year, he said.

"Vendors are now improving image processing power, offering wider angles and focal point to differentiate their products from others," he said.
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