PMA Data Watch: Printing behavior of U.S. households
According to the PMA 2009 U.S. Camera/Camcorder Digital Imaging Survey, 61 percent of digital camera households in U.S. made paper prints from their digital images in 2008. This is drop compared to the percentage of households making paper prints in the few years prior, with the exception of 2007. Forty-five percent of total U.S. households made prints from digital images in 2008.
Forty-two percent of printing households printed no more than 10 percent of the digital images they saved, stored or kept in the 2008. Only 12 percent of households said they printed almost all (91 percent to 100 percent) of the pictures they saved, stored or kept in the same period of time. The average amount of pictures printed in 2008 was 36 percent.
Of U.S. households that made paper prints in 2008, nearly half (48 percent) made just one print per image. Thirty-four percent of households made 2 prints for image and the remainder of printing households made more than two prints per image. The average number of prints per image was 1.6 in 2008.
PMA Data Watch: Photo Book activity of advanced amateurs
According to The 2009 PMA/6 Sight Rise of the Amateur Report, 65 percent of advanced amateurs that responded to the survey, distributed in October 2009, said they purchased more than one photo book in the past 12 months. Six percent said they made more than 10 books in that same time frame. Enthusiasts make more books per year, compared to the average consumer, and penetration is much higher.
Among the U.S.-based and non-U.S.-based enthusiasts surveyed, 21 percent used Apple iPhoto to create photo books. Following in popularity were Blurb and Shutterfly, with 19 percent and 10 percent of respondents using these services, respectively. Thirty-three percent of enthusiasts, however, cited using other services for their photo book needs. These included Mpix and Apple Apperture for U.S.-based consumers and Photobox, CeWe, Fotobuch and Hema, Apple, Pixum, and Momento for non-U.S.-based consumers.
The majority of the enthusiasts (35 percent) surveyed claimed the photo book services they used were as expected. Fifty-one percent felt the services they used were at least slightly better than expected while the remaining 14 percent felt the services performed worse than expected.
PMA Data Watch: Digital camera sales this past December a slight improvement over the past couple of years
According to PMA Marketing Research, typically, 30-40 percent of digital camera sales occur in the last quarter of any given year. With a faltering economy, this past November and December were extremely rough for retailers. Once again, the year as a whole was not favorable for digital camera manufacturers and retailers.
Digital camera unit sales were down 2 percent in December 2009 compared to the same month last year, reports the latest PMA Monthly Printing and Camera Trends Report. November was a little better as unit sales were up 2 percent compared to the previous year. In December 2008, digital camera sales were down 7 percent compared to the prior year. Looking back at December 2007, digital camera sales were down 3 percent compared to the previous year.
For the entire year during 2009, digital camera unit sales were down 8 percent. In 2008, sales were down 2 percent in unit terms. Revenue from sales of digital cameras was down 10 percent, whereas in 2008, revenue was down 8 percent. Looking back at December 2007, revenue from digital camera sales was up a fraction of a percent compared to the year prior. Increased revenue is the result of competitive products and slightly higher sales, despite the weak economy.
PMA Data Watch: A look at uploading activity in the Flickr community
The popular photo sharing site Flickr includes a feature allowing users to get the latest on the most popular camera models and camera phone models being used to upload photos in the Flickr community. Popularity is determined by tracking the number of users, as well as, the number of images uploaded on any given day with each of the models. The Apple iPhone is by far the most popular camera phone model, as it was when PMA Marketing Research last surveyed the site in June. In fact, the apple iPhone 3G takes first place and the Apple iPhone 3GS takes second. Following in order of popularity are the Nokia N95, BlackBerry Storm 9530, and the RIM BlackBerry 9630.
On June 4, 2009, there were 24,653 images uploaded on Flickr from the popular Apple iPhone and there were 3,887 users. Numbers continued to climb with 3,887 users and 24,563 images uploaded on January 28, 2010. The number of pictures uploaded per user, however, dropped from where it was back in June. There were 1,376 users of the Apple iPhone 3GS who uploaded a total of 9,740 items on January 28.
In any case, this is significant as the number of photos being uploaded from the iPhone is up and just barely trailing the number of photos or videos uploaded on the same day from the most popular point-and-shoot camera, the Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS. On average, 18.2 photos or videos are being uploaded per user with this particular model.
The number of items uploaded on the above mentioned day in June from the top five camera phones totaled 35,488 items. This month, however, the number grew to 42,550 items. Users totaled 8,034 items in June, up from 5,923 in February. This data indicates that on the given day in June each user uploaded, on average, 6 images, but only 5.3 images were uploaded per user on the day surveyed in January.
For more information on the models mentioned above and more visit the Camera Finder page on the Flickr website.
