[Pixalo]

According to the latest forecast from Lyra Research, the digital imaging authority (www.lyra.com), worldwide digital camera shipments rose 21 percent in 2006 to approximately 98 million units. This sizeable growth spurt occurred despite household penetration of greater than 50 percent in Japan, the United States, and leading nations in Western Europe, and in spite of multimegapixel camera phones becoming commonplace in Asia and Europe. Lyra's forecast now projects worldwide digital camera shipments to exceed 130 million units in 2010 for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 10 percent.

"Sales in 2006 showed that consumers' appetite for digital cameras has not been abated by the spread of camera phones or by existing digital cameras in the household," comments Steve Hoffenberg, Lyra's director of consumer
imaging research. "Current digital camera users upgraded in droves to new models offered by every major manufacturer, lured by image-stabilization features, broader zoom lens ratios, and higher-resolution sensors.
While the upgrading activity will eventually taper off, it shows little signs of vanishing through the end of the decade, as camera makers continue to pack more value into their products."

This contrasts with overall sales of digital cameras in the UK, which levelled off at 6.2m for 2006, compared to 6m in 2005, according to the Photo Marketing Association. The extra sales were almost entirely down to a boom in sales of digital SLRs. The falling cost and introduction of many entry-level DSLRs resulted in sales of 220,000 in 2005 jumping to 360,000 in 2006. Jessops reported a 60% surge in sales value of digital SLRs, for the year up to September 2006. This excludes the Christmas period when demand was expected to very high.

Meanwhile, sales of film cameras in the UK halved from 600,000 in 2005 to 300,000 in 20006, resulting in a market value of just £14m for film, against a whopping £1b for digital. The overall UK sales ratio means that digital cameras outsold film cameras 20-1 in 2006.