India Digital Camera Market Records 69% YoY Growth In Sales (Shipments) To Touch An All-Time First Of 8.45 Lakh Units In The October-December 2010 Quarter

Continuous decline in ASVs leads to sharp rise in share of cameras sold with > 12 MP resolution

Overall India Digital Camera market sales expected to touch 41 lakh units in calendar 2011

Bangalore / Gurgaon : The India digital camera market recorded a healthy growth in unit sales (shipments) of 69% year-on-year (October-December 2010 over October-December 2009). The overall market touched 8,45,000 units for the first time in a single quarter in Q4 CY2010. The digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera category witnessed a significantly higher uptake, registering a growth of 120% year-on-year. This has been revealed in CMR’s India Quarterly Digital Camera Market Review, 4Q 2010, April 2011 release.

Figure 1: India Digital Camera Sales, 1Q 2008 to 4Q 2010

Source: CMR, 2011

Table 1: India Digital Camera Sales (in thousands) by Form Factor, Oct-Dec 2010 *

* Source: CMR’s India Quarterly Digital Camera Market Review, 4Q 2010, April 2011 release

In the point-and-shoot (P&S) category, Sony was the market leader with market share of 31% in terms of unit sales (shipments) during 4Q CY2010, followed by Nikon with 24%, Kodak 13% and Canon 12%. In the digital single lens reflex (DSLR) category, Nikon was the leader with a 51% share in terms of unit shipments during 4Q CY2010, followed by Canon with a 46% share.

According to Mr. Anirban Banerjee, Associate Vice President, Research and Advisory Services, CMR, “Multiple market forces have converged to drive the rise in shipments of digital cameras in the India market in recent quarters. The most important ones are – increase in availability and sharing of digital content, increase in ‘real’ spending power and reduction in average selling price.”

Growing competition in recent quarters has led vendors to launch feature-rich cameras at affordable price points. This market activity typically starts around the April-June quarter and culminates in large sales during the ‘festive’ months lasting August-January, backed by heavy advertising in popular media channels and promotional schemes.

As per CMR’s study the digital camera price segment “below Rs. 10,000” contributed around 75% of total sales in the country during the October-December 2010 quarter.

According to Nikhil Khurana, Lead Analyst, India Digital Products Research, CMR, “The current market trends point to multiple ownership backed by an increasing consciousness and demand for high performance cameras amongst urban Indian households in the large metros. Users are looking to buy better quality, high-resolution cameras for personal use. Digital camera vendors are innovating in terms of design, functionalities and technology, pushing out products to consumers at ever lower prices.”

“Vendors have found increasing acceptance of digital cameras amongst first time buyers in ‘B’ and ‘C’ class towns and have started to focus on strengthening their reach into these areas to further grow the market. This is expected to help the penetration of digital cameras to rise from the current level estimated to be below 5% to 10% by 2015′, Nikhil further added.

Figure 2. India Digital Camera Market: Typical Configurations, Sales (% of units) and ASVs, 4Q 2009 versus 4Q 2010

Source: CMR, 2011

CMR expects the P&S camera category to grow at a CAGR of 30%, while DSLR cameras would grow at a CAGR of 63% in terms of units over the period 2010-2015. The overall India digital camera market would grow at a CAGR of 32% in terms of units over the same period. The India digital camera market would touch 41 lakh units in 2011, of which 38.4 lakh units would be P&S cameras, while the remaining 2.6 lakh would be DSLR cameras.

Interestingly, the number of mobile handsets with cameras sold in India during 4Q CY 2010 was 304 lakh units or 63% of all phones, as compared to 138 lakh units or 42% of all handset sales in 4Q CY 2009.