Sales of digital cameras that enable users to immediately post pictures
on the web have risen sharply in Asia despite stiff competition from
smartphones, an industry survey showed Thursday.
Market research
company GfK said sales of WiFi-enabled cameras in 13 major Asian markets
including Japan and China rose 52 percent from the year before to 8.44
million units in 2012 with a total value of $2.74 billion.
While
WiFi-enabled digital stills cameras have been around since 2005, GfK
said sales have only picked up in the past two years as manufacturers
widened the range of models available and prices fell due to
competition.
There are currently 160 models of Wi-Fi ready cameras in the market, it said.
"The
introduction of the WiFi feature in cameras is definitely a right step
forward to stimulate and boost the camera market in this Internet age,"
Gerard Tan, account director for digital technology at GfK Asia, said in
a statement.
Another emerging battleground is the market for
WiFi-enabled "mirrorless" cameras, which can be made nearly as small as
compact cameras but with picture quality that rivals that of their
bulkier DSLR counterparts, the report said.
The GfK survey showed
an eight-fold increase in the sale of WiFi-enabled mirrorless cameras
last year compared to 2011, with a total of 765,600 units sold in the 13
countries surveyed.
