27 Percent Of All Photos In The United States Taken On Smartphones

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We all know that cameras with smartphones are getting to be a big deal. But what you may not know is just how big a deal these products actually are, as newly-released research says that better than a quarter of all photos taken in the United States last year were done via smartphone.

Basically, for the year 2011, according to research done by the firm NPD, about 27 percent of all photos were shot on smartphones. Meanwhile, 44 percent of all photos were shot with stand-alone cameras, and the rest shot by a combination of webcams, camcorders, tablets, and regular cell phones. You might wonder where I got the dramatic headline that smartphone cameras are taking over the market based on those numbers, but add in the previous year’s figures and it makes much more sense. See, in 2010, the percentage of stand-alone digital cameras shooting pictures was 52 percent. That’s an eight percent drop over one year. Smartphones, meanwhile, were at 17 percent in 2010, representing a ten percent increase.

It only gets worse for the digital camera market as the digital camera market lost 17 percent of its sales this year over last, and dropped 18 percent of its revenue. So basically, not only were fewer pictures taken with digital cameras, fewer of them were sold, and less money was made on them.

Sure, the figures are a bit skewed here; we’re talking about pictures taken, after all, and it may be that more pictures are taken on smartphones because of the sheer convenience of it. On a smartphone you can not only shoot photos, but you can upload them or email them right from the same device (plus chances are you’re carrying your phone already), so you’re more likely to take a photo with your phone than you are to take your digital camera with you where ever you happen to go.

Still though, that loss of revenue and sales is something that can’t be so easily dismissed, nor the growing popularity of phones like the iPhone 4S with a widely-recognized camera function. But what do you guys think here? Have you left your digital camera behind in favor of your smartphone? Or are you still snapping shots with your favorite digital camera? No matter what your stance on this one, we welcome hearing from you in the comments section below!