Digital Cameras (without Video)
33.1% of respondents have never owned a digital camera (without video), representing the 8th largest untapped market of any of the 16 devices studied, according to a Researchscape survey of 1,000 consumers.
Purchase Interest
14.1% of respondents were “very interested” or “extremely interested” in purchasing a digital still camera. People interested in digital cameras are most likely to also be interested in feature phones (cell phones without Internet access, 0.323 correlation), digital photo frames (0.308 correlation) and portable DVD players (0.259 correlation). No device category had statistically significant negative correlation: even digital cameras with video were not mutually exclusive but in fact were the device category of fourth greatest interest (with a 0.207 correlation) to those interested in digital cameras without video.
Digital still cameras are a category that doesn’t benefit much from device substitution: only 0.7% of respondents would replace a broken device from a different category (typically, a digital camera with video) with a digital still camera.
Just 0.4% of respondents without a digital still camera said it was the device they didn’t own that they were most interested in purchasing. Of all respondents, 0.3% identified digital still cameras as the device they were most interested in purchasing, the lowest interest level of any of the 16 devices studied. Few respondents want a digital camera without video more than any other device: those who do find their cellphone camera to be inadequate.
- Cell phone camera is inadequate (3 respondents):
- “I do not own a digital camera, and my phone does not have a good camera. I would like to be able to take photos to share with others.”
- “I want to take higher quality photos than my cell phone.”
- “I don’t like the inconsistency of my phone camera and would like to take better photos.”
- Other noteworthy comments:
- “It would be nice to have a camera for some occasions.”
- “I would like a nice camera.”
- “Because I love to take pictures.”
Current Ownership
Only 22.9% of respondents currently own a digital still camera, the third lowest ownership rate of the 16 devices studied.
27.6% no longer use the device, giving it the third highest rate of lapsed usage, behind only digital photo frames and handheld game consoles. Similarly, it had the third lowest rate of frequent use: only 26.8% of owners reported using their digital video camera frequently.
In a separate survey of 400 consumers, we asked respondents a hypothetical question: which devices would they purchase if they had lost all of their devices in a robbery and new purchases were covered by insurance? 24.6% of current owners were “very interested” or “extremely interested” in repurchasing a digital video camera, the second lowest interest level in repurchasing, above only that of digital photo frames.
Digital still cameras are the third least valued of devices: 28.1% of owners said it was the device that they were least interested in replacing if it broke.
Past Ownership
44% of respondents have owned a digital video camera in the past but no longer do so, the second highest rate of past ownership (second only to feature phones). This represents 65.8% of the group of current and former owners.