Smartphone cameras now account for 27 percent of all photos and video taken. This is up from 17 percent last year, a near 59 percent increase. It’s no surprise that smartphone-as-a-camera usage is up, but this new Imaging Confluence Study by the NPD Group gives us the details.
Also interesting is the significant percentage of photos that are non-vacation photos. Because smartphone consumers now always have a camera in their pocket, more fleeting precious moments — cats in ties, red solo cups, people of Walmart — are being immortalized than ever before.
As we’ve reported before here at Macgasm, the iPhone dominates all other cameras (smartphone or otherwise) on Flickr, which would lead us to believe (in absence of solid applicable data from this study) that the iPhone makes up a huge part of that increase. Plenty of iOS apps and social networks support this — Hipstamatic, Snapseed, Instagram, and Path, to name a few. Twitter and associated clients now show previews with direct access to photos and video. Even Facebook is migrating from a text-heavy wall to a more photo-based look for their new Timeline.
The study also shows that usage of higher-end point-and-shoots (those with good glass/optical zoom) and DSLRs are still rising, with the typical DSLR base price around the cost of a 64GB 3G iPad 2. In other words, there’s still a demand for great cameras, but many consumers are finding their smartphones “good enough”.
(from my personal photos on flickr)
Source: NPD Group
Via: WIRED.com’s Christina Bonnington
