CES Gets its Groove Back
by Picture Business Staff on January 13, 2010
Sections: Accessories, Camera Phones, CES, Digital Cameras, Green, Smartphones
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Lots of digital camera news at this year’s CES – some of which we can tell you about and some we can’t …until PMA that is.
While we won’t list every single camera we saw we will say the trend that is emerging in the point-and-shoot market is an interesting one – more intriguing in-camera engagement options that are all ultimately aimed at helping consumers take better pictures and then encouraging them to do more with them once they do.
While this trend is certainly presenting some interesting new technology into the digital camera market, we’re not so sure consumers have the kind of time on their hands manufacturers must think they do. This “engagement” and “creative expression” movement is an interesting direction but we’d like to see more emphasis on the ability to simply take better pictures.
Not that these models don’t offer that – as they most certainly do – we just think the technology may be starting to overwhelm the picture-taking public just a bit.
Some analysts are predicting another slow year in eth digital camera category, though not as bad as the 9 percent decline seen this past year. While IDC is predicting a 7 percent drop in business, NPD Group was a bit more optimistic predicting that HD video capture and overall new feature sets will help lift the market.
That being said, it wasn’t all about the cameras at CES as storage, memory and, but of course, video capture made big news as well.
But before we delve into the new product parade, the show’s attendance figures are worth a look as well. Organizers tell us the show drew 120,000 industry professionals, a jump of nearly 7,000 over last year's figures. That's according to preliminary figures released Sunday by the Consumer Electronics Association, which also said that the show featured 20,000 new products from 2,500 companies.
The items that follow in our sister newsletter Digital Clique this week offer up but a sampling of some the new products we eyed at the annual Vegas madness that is CES. We’ll unveil a bit more next week.
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