Global growth in digital camera sales slowed substantially last year, and it is expected to remain comparatively modest in coming years, according to a report released Friday by market research firm IDC.
Worldwide shipments of digital cameras in 2001 grew 22 percent year over year, to 18.4 million units, according to the report. Revenue totaled $8 billion.
While such growth seems substantial compared with troubled markets such a PCs, it's a dramatic downshift from previous annual growth rates of around 100 percent, said IDC analyst Chris Chute.
Chute said the slowdown is due partly to the size of the digital camera market. But he also pointed to larger market conditions likely to constrain growth in the near future.
Ancillary digital-imaging services, such as in-store kiosks that allow camera owners to easily make prints of their images, are still in their infancy, Chute said. Until such services become widespread, digital cameras will only appeal to a technologically literate portion of the public.
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