Smartphones score with camera function
GfK findings for the first half of 2012 at the photokina trade fair
Nuremberg, 14 September 2012 – The global demand for smartphones
continues unabated, in spite of the continued difficult economic climate
prevailing in many countries. According to GfK, more than 650 million
smartphones have been sold, representing an increase of around 50 percent
year-on-year. This growth has disadvantaged feature phones in particular, which
don’t have the versatility of a smartphone. This means that within the public
there is growth in the level of ownership of multifunctional devices which
among other features have a continuously improving capability for capturing
still and moving images. These are findings from GfK on the market for
telecommunications compiled for photokina 2012 in Cologne, Germany.
In western
industrialized states, in particular, more and more customers are choosing
smartphones over ordinary feature phones with proprietary operating systems. In
many west European countries, significantly more smartphones than feature
phones are already being sold, and so for manufacturers, this means that a
range of attractive smartphones is an absolute must. On the other hand, if
manufacturers position themselves in the dwindling feature phone market where
the profit margins are also lower, they will come to a dead-end sooner or
later. Added to this is the fact that, particularly in the case of the more
expensive mobiles, consumers are almost exclusively buying smartphones. This
means that smartphones costing in excess of €150 now account for at least 80
percent of global mobile phone sales.
Conversely, in the
emerging economies and developing countries, more feature phones are still
being sold at present. However, the share attributable to smartphones is
growing at a significantly faster rate, since on the one hand, purchasing power
in these countries is rising and on the other, there tends to be a burgeoning
middle class. For example, in Latin America, during the first six months of
this year, one in five mobile phones bought was a smartphone, compared with the
prior year, when the figure was still one in seven. In Asia, over the same
period, the smartphone share of mobile phones has leapt by 22 percent to its current
level of 41 percent. In North, South and East Africa, too, the demand for
all-singing, all-dancing electronic devices is also rising sharply and at
present, just under one in seven cellphones sold in this region is a
smartphone.
Today around four out
of five mobile or smartphones sold around the world have a built-in camera, and
their sales are moving steadily upwards. Particularly as a result of the need
for smart allrounder cameras, sales of devices with an integrated camera
function which can meet demanding requirements have been going up. For
instance, the share of mobile phones with a resolution above five megapixels
rose in the world market from 17 percent in the first half of 2011 to 27
percent a year later. In Europe, such devices even have a share of around 40 percent
out of all the mobile and smartphones sold. Products that have recently been
launched often have pixel values which are well over ten megapixels, and
therefore in this respect are fully up to the standard of normal cameras. To
complement them, and in order to deal with the lack of optical zoom, the
accessory industry is now offering changeable lenses which makes it possible to
improve the camera function of smartphones.
The fact that with
smartphones, it is possible to upload still and moving images from anywhere
into social networks is on the other hand a unique selling point for
smartphones compared with the majority of digital cameras. A further function
which is increasingly finding acceptance in smartphones is the possibility of
exposing videoclips in HD quality. Developments are moving very fast. In
Europe, the region which is leading the world, during the second quarter of
2012, one in six smartphones had this technology. A year earlier, its share was
still under 3 percent.
The method
Through its retail
panel, GfK regularly gathers data on mobile phones and landline telephones, mobile
broadband dongles, mobile phone accessories, radio devices, phone tariffs and
mobile content such as games and ringtones in more than 90 countries around the world. This analysis is based on information on
current developments in the mobile market for the first half of 2012.
About GfK
GfK is one of the world’s largest research companies, with more than
11,500 experts working to discover new insights into the way people live, think
and shop, in over 100 markets, every day. GfK is constantly innovating and
using the latest technologies and the smartest methodologies to give its
clients the clearest understanding of the most important people in the world:
their customers. In 2011, GfK’s sales amounted to €1.37 billion.
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