DSLR and mirrorless types made up two in every five cameras sold
February 25, 2016, SINGAPORE—The Asia Pacific region has shown resilience amidst the challenging imaging market conditions as the rising penetration of smartphones continues to dominate consumer spending on tech gadgets in 2015. As the overall market shrank by 19 percent compared to a year ago to less than USD 2.6 billion, photography enthusiasts in the region have shifted the industry’s focus to the more advanced and high-end DSLR and mirrorless segments which together account for over 70 percent of the market share in 2015—up by nearly 4 percentage points from a year ago.
In January to December 2015, over 1.3 million DSLRs and nearly 980,000 mirrorless cameras were sold, representing 39 percent of the total camera sales volume in the region. In value terms, although the DSLR segment occupied the lion’s share of 46 percent, it was the mirrorless segment which grew nearly 5 percentage points to reach nearly a quarter (24%) of the entire digital camera market value. Its sales volume reached 979,000 units across the region. .
“It is interesting to highlight that most of the emerging countries in APAC have shown stable, if not positive growth within their respective DSLR and mirrorless segments,” said Gerard Tan, Account Director for Technology, GfK Asia. “In particular, consumer spending on mirrorless cameras within this region surged by nearly 50 percent last year, thanks to the rising acceptance of the high-end camera range, as well as better distribution network in the countries, which makes the gadget more easily accessible to the locals.”
The region’s average camera price for the DSLR and mirrorless segments combined stood at USD 785, but when it boils down to individual markets, considerable differences in average prices between countries are exhibited. For instance, average price for these two segments was highest in Hong Kong at USD 1,030 while Indonesia’s was at the opposite end of the scale, at only USD 544.
“A piece of good new news for the industry is the insignificance in price point dips for both the DSLR and mirrorless segments, especially here in emerging Asia,” note Tan. “Compared to the smartphone industry where average prices have been falling noticeably, the digital camera markets in Asia Pacific have remained relatively stable and will likely carry on this way for a while,” he concluded.
GfK is a key participating company at CP+ Camera & Photo Imaging Show 2016. Catch the CIPA and GfK Global Market Seminar on February 26. Visit the event website for more details.
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Notes:
- APAC countries covered include Australia, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Philippines, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam (excludes China and Japan)
- Survey period: January – December 2015 versus January – December 2014