Step aside, American consumers. Within the next five years, InfoTrends predicts that China will take the lead as the most active demographic among digital camera consumers.
According to the report, growth in digital camera markets in the United States and western Europe peaked in 2001. As digital cameras have become ever more accessible, untapped consumer markets such as China have become an appealing new source of revenue for camera manufacturers. Although the report acknowledges that many Chinese consumers still have relatively low-income households, the affordability of entry-level digital cameras makes them easy for the masses to enjoy.
Already this year, InfoTrends reports that consumers in China take 2.5 times more digital camera photos than American consumers, and nearly three times as many camera-phone images.
InfoTrends has also conducted surveys as part of a larger study on other emerging camera markets in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and India. While China and India are expected to hold 70 percent of Asia’s share of digital cameras in 2014, Latin America and Mexico are rapidly becoming a growing consumer base for smartphones.