Third-class products favored by consumers

When entering the stores, a bustling scene appeared before reporters, counters for digital cameras are overcrowded with potential buyers. They are consulting on digital cameras of different brands, different properties and styles.

In view of current market structure, digital camera market can be classified into three categories: product at 1-1.99 million pixels priced at 3000 yuan is of low-grade, product at 2-2.99 million pixels priced at 3000-7000 yuan is classified into middle-category and product at 3 million pixels is of high-grade with the price over 7000 yuan.

A steady growth market

Currently, there are not many brands in Chinese market, they are mainly Olympus, Sony, Canon, Sanyo, Fuji, Kodak, Epson and other foreign brands, some domestic brands like Founder also made a debut in the market.

Actually, digital camera has come into market for several years, but mainly in the markets of Europe, America and Japan. They occupy a large market portion. Only in recent two to three years, did digital cameras get into the Chinese market and enter the lives of the ordinary people.

Since last year, digital camera tended towards a steady growth from a previous high growth. In last February, digital camera saw a steady growth. A great opportunity is brewing in this stable market. Some well-known brands have launched their new products.

According to insiders, some 7 million digital cameras are expected to be sold out this year, especially the middle-grade will take the lion's share of the market and the peak season for sales is estimated at the latter half of this year, especially in around the summer holidays.

Market potential emerging

China's market only accounts for 1.5 percent of the global market. This indicates that China has a great potential for digital cameras.

Digital cameras used for drawing and for other uses are decreasing, while those for amateur and travel photography are increasing.

According to statistics, some 19.7 percent of Chinese people have purchased digital cameras, the rest 80. 3 percent do not have yet and proportion for people ready to buy accounts for 84.2 percent while those who do not want to buy take up 15.8 percent. From the statistics, we can see that digital camera has great potential in China's market.

Insiders predict that as technologies become more and more mature, prices will be lowered. With the motivation of PC and Internet's popularity, the development pace and fever of digital camera will continue to rise and someday in the future will see China become the largest consumer country of digital cameras in the world.

(People's Daily April 09, 2002)