Outsmarting the smartphone
I saw an observation recently that stated that the difference between a smartphone and a camera was involvement… to which I would add the words “and commitment”. Then there’s the online promotional campaign currently being run by Ted’s Cameras under the banner “a real moment deserves a real camera”. On the hardware side, the smartphone has virtually put paid to the compact camera business. Total camera sales globally in 2020 were 10% of what was being sold 10 years ago. Ten percent! The vast majority of those losses were, of course, compact fixed-lens cameras. This has forced the industry to move from a volume model to a value model. The thing is that the march of the smartphone continues into the market that was once the exclusive domain of traditional cameras… ever…