"This year in particular is a huge year for digital cameras in terms of market growth. And what we're really seeing is kind of a mainstream adoption in terms of the type of user who is getting involved in digital cameras. Last year, 10 million digital cameras were sold in the U.S. market. This year, we're expecting closer to 14 million."
. What kinds of cameras are people buying?
"Certainly the biggest volume growth is in the entry level, which is more or less the beginning type cameras. Typically, our PowerShot A70 is a good example of a camera with a 3 megapixel sensor and an optical zoom lens that seels for under 300 dollars. But also there's another area... or sweet spot..that's covered by the Digital Elph category... like the PowerShot S400 that sells for about 400 dollars. The last sweet spot is in the more or less the top end... in the digital SLR category with the interchangeable lenses like our EOS 10D model."
Canon has plenty of competition... as it tries to surpass market leader Sony... from companies like HP, Olympus, Kodak, Minolta and Casio. The good news for consumers is while prices remain higher than for traditional film cameras... they are getting higher quality digital models for their money.