The rise of camera centric smartphones, with high-end lens boasting of clicks almost at par with digital cameras, has led to the decline in demand for the latter. This has hurt the pockets of many digital camera manufacturers, Samsung being one of them. Owing to this, the Korean giant has decided to halt digital camera manufacturing, as per a report.
Citing unnamed sources, The Investor reported that Samsung is bidding adieu to the digital camera market and has already stopped producing and selling digital cameras.
A Samsung official, who refused to be named, was quoted by The Investor as saying:
We no longer produce and sell digital cameras…But we will create a new camera product category to continue the business.
Again, based on an industry source’s revelation, we come to know that ‘the robust growth of smartphone cameras’ made Samsung lose its upper hand in the entry level digital cameras. The source said:
Even when Japanese big names such as Canon and Nikon who have more than 100 years of history are struggling in the premium market, Samsung seems to have no option but to leave the market.
Samsung forayed into digital camera manufacturing in 1997 and soon found itself dominating the the entry segment until the mid-2000s. But gradually its hold weakened. The last digital camera model produced by Samsung was the mirror-less NX500 launched in March 2015. As an alternative, Samsung plans to change tracks and enter into the domain of creating smartphone cameras and high-end Gear 360 camera, which it launched last year in April, capable of capturing high-resolution images and videos in 360-degrees.
via The Investor
Gee, we have always seen this coming. Smartphone cameras slowly taking over digital point and shoots. Now its here.