Suhit Gupta
04-05-2004, 10:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=30016' target='_blank'>http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=30016</a><br /><br /></div>"Digital camera makers Canon Inc. and Eastman Kodak Co. gained in the rapidly growing and fiercely competitive global market for digital cameras in 2003, but failed to displace Sony Corp., according to industry data. In its <a href="http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=29880">Digital Still Camera 2003 report</a> (access to the study is $4,500), research firm IDC said Sony held an 18 percent share of units shipped. Canon, with its 16 percent share, passed Olympus Corp., which had 13 percent. At a 12 percent share, Kodak rose to fourth place, leapfrogging Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd."<br /><br />"Sony and Canon have done a good job of communicating that their brands are key factors in digital camera purchases. Each company's heritage business has made its digital camera brand that much stronger," said Chris Chute, senior analyst for IDC's Digital Imaging Solutions and Services program. The same study also reported that global shipments of consumer point-and-shoot digital cameras reached "47.9 million units in 2003, up 71 percent from 28 million in 2002".