E! Not believing the hype about the 50 million that came from H&Q's report, I ran out of time using altavista to search for updated data! Like DVD my sense is that 50 million is just a tad optimistic. So went sleuthing.
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news.com
The number of digital cameras sold in the U.S. last
year was around 600,000-700,000 and worldwide
sales probably amounted to about 1 million,"
Krause said in an interview with Reuters.
"In 1997 estimates for digital camera sales
worldwide range up to 3 to 4 million, compared to
about 33 to 35 million sales of conventional
cameras," he said.
"Only by the year 2000 could the number of digital
camera sales have risen to about 13 to 15 million."
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And here's a lower number:
www8.zdnet.com
About 3 million digital cameras will be sold in 1997, according to a joint report published in July by
International Data Corp. of Framingham, Mass., and Future Image Inc. of Burlingame, Calif.
According to the report, titled "Worldwide Digital Still Camera Market Forecast and Analysis," the
buying trend will expand to 9 million digital cameras sold per year by 2001.
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And one more:
agfaphoto.com
Agfa estimates that some thirteen million digital cameras will
be in use by the end of the decade
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Saved the best for last:
economictimes.com
One of the $35 chips from LSI, a maker of electronic components for
computers, will replace about five separate chips currently used to make one
digital camera, said LSI executive vice-president Moshe Gavrielov.
''This chip is really going to enable digital cameras to compete head-on with film
cameras,'' Gavrielov said.
It will also help LSI, based in Milpitas, California get an early lead in the rapidly
expanding market for digital cameras, analysts said.
Digital cameras work just like regular cameras, except that they store images in
digital format on computer memory instead of on film.
The digital images can be displayed on a television set or a PC monitor.
They can also be printed on a regular PC printer, retouched by graphics
software, and transmitted to others via E-mail.
About 1 million digital cameras were sold worldwide in 1996, compared with
about 50 million film cameras, according to market researcher Dataquest.
Dataquest expects the number of digital cameras sold annually to jump to 14
million by 2000.
LSI also aims to put these chips in several million of those cameras.
If LSI gets market-share percentages in the teens, it would mean tens of millions
of dollars in revenue, Gavrielov said.
''In 1998 the digital camera has the potential of being a very big hit,'' said
Shekhar Wadekar, semiconductor analyst at investment bank Raymond James
& Associates in St Petersburg, Florida.
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Finally: let's say market is 6 million cameras in 1998. Then at say $25 a pop and 25% market share LSI would generate 37,500,000 in 1998 - that's much more reasonable and believable!!! :-)
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