Some digital models disappear, prices drop
Two years ago for a story for a Chinese company I counted all the models of digital cameras in existence at the time. The answer was 6,386. Nobody ever quite believes that number and, of course, it is not quite true. A camera company adds a different color to the casing and that it a new number. And change gets a new number.
But it does show that there are problems galore for the consumer and for the manufacturer.
For the consumer how do you tell if the H356 is a better machine than the F276. It probably is not. It is the same basic machine with gubbins added. You are paying for gubbins. And this situation simply could not last. The excess of treasures merely confused the market.
Let us take one of the more serious companies — Sony. Not listing ALL of the models they have but sticking with the solid center we have:
Sony Alpha DSLR-A200, Sony Alpha DSLR-A300, Sony Alpha DSLR-A350, Sony Alpha DSLR-A700 digital camera, Sony Alpha DSLR-A900,Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G3 ,Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H10, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50 digital camera,Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S730, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S750, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S780, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S950, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T2, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T70, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T77, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T300, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T500, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W120, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W130, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W150, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W170, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300.
Yes, I have missed out some models and, yes, I have probably duplicated one or two because by eyes are getting tired. But that it is the solid center. And it is totally daft and confusing to the user.
Now market research firm IDC predicts that over the course of the coming year, many of the newer cameras will disappear as makers consolidate models and boil them down to only what sells.
IDC analyst Ron Glaz said of the digital camera market, in an slightly ungrammatic way which we will allow lest we be thought pedants, ‘It’s crowded, and it’s getting crowdeder.’ Or possibly even more crowded.
He said, ‘We’re anticipating that with the slowdown in economy and disposable income, we’ll start seeing consolidation of the vendors.’
Image-acquire.com said the recent trend towards including high-end features like face recognition technology, image stabilization (generally known on these pages as gubbins) or an extra megapixel or two is an attempt to boost market share of an increasingly crowded digital marketplace.
Thus with the downturn and the confusion of the potential buyer some of makers and lots of models are likely to vanish in fairly short order. And there will be some amazing bargains although, in fairness, the quality you can buy for the price these days is totally astounding.
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