Digital Picture Frame Sales Holding Up Well
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According to business analysts Futuresource Consulting, UK consumers are buying digital picture frames faster than ever. It’s estimated that one in ten UK homes now have at least one digital frame – 8 million were sold in the UK market during 2008.
Sales of a large number of low cost 7″ frames helped to grow sales volumes by 60% in comparison with 2007 figures. Sales are heavily influenced by gifting and first time impulse buyers attracted by ever reducing prices. Between Christmas 2007 and Christmas 2008, sales prices fell by around 20% for the most widely chosen 7″ model of frame.
The gifting market is a powerful driver and there are significant sales peaks during the period preceding major holidays. Consumers really appreciate the possibility of personalising the frames by loading them with photographs in advance of handing over their gift and many are realising that the possibility of providing “updates” exists, either by passing over a new memory card with fresh photos on it or even by wirelessly downloading a batch of photos from the web.
Philips, Samsung, Kodak, Sony and Toshiba, the major players, increased their share of the market to 54% in 2008. However, generic frames and lesser known brands also sold well.
In spite of the current economic climate, sales are forecast to continue to increase by between 10 and 20 percent in 2009. Market watchers are predicting that we will see more and more “convergence products” – items such as TVs, iPods, notebooks etc. which also incorporate picture frame functionality – and that these may gradually lower the sales of dedicated digital frames.
Considering the number of products which now incorporate digital frames, that doesn’t seem unreasonable. Small 1.5 inch key fob type frames are perhaps an unsurprising development – but thermal travel mugs, desk tidies and even sunglasses with digital frames are also currently on offer in the marketplace.
As a matter of fact, as frames with increased functionality become increasingly available, it might become difficult to tell whether a particular device is a photo frame which can also be used as a web browser or some other type of device which can also be used to display digital photographs. Frames which can read news feeds from the web and receive photos wirelessly from photo sharing websites already exist. Similarly, there are large screen TVs which, instead of showing a blank screen upon entering into standby mode, can have family photos on show.
In summary, digital photo frames can now be considered to be a mainstream consumer product rather as opposed to a high technology item. Their mass appeal in the gifting market will ensure continued growth in 2009, despite the economic climate, and future technology fusion will fuel further sales growth in the medium to long term.
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