Picture the scene: you’re at the beach with your family when a classic ‘Kodak Moment’ presents itself. Perhaps it’s a beautiful sunset, or your daughter’s first swim. Or maybe you’ve found a putrefied globster that demands scientific investigation.
The question is: do you reach for your compact camera, or your mobile phone? According to Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) analysts speaking at CES’s State of the Global Economy address, the latter is a lot more likely.
As we move into 2012, smartphone spending continues to grow at a double-digit rate, while by contrast, the CEA claimed at this year's CES that the compact camera market has moved into decline.
Although the DSLR and interchangeable lens markets remain resilient, point-and-shoot cameras (and their camcorder counterparts) are in an increasingly unhealthy position, according to what we've heard from the CEA. It seems that more and more people are ‘making do’ with the camera capabilities of their smart phones.
Could the trusty compact be slowly heading towards obsolescence like the increasingly irrelevant music CD? To torture the analogy further, will the result be sub-par image quality as people take more photos with their phones, just as some argued the audio shortcomings of MP3s?
We'd like to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Do you find yourself using your phone camera more than your compact? What precipitated the change? And do you find the quality of your output significantly worse? We also want to hear from photography buffs who wouldn't be caught dead using a phone camera. Let us know in the comments area below.
