Digital Cameras Poised to Enjoy Mass Market Acceptance

Toronto, August 01, 2001 - After years of promise digital cameras are finally on the verge of moving into the mainstream among Canadian adults according to a new study from Ipsos-Reid. This growing acceptance of digital photography is having a dramatic impact on the way Canadians take, store, and share photos.

Slightly less than one-in-five Canadian adults (16%) report owning or having access to a digital camera and 28% of Internet users (which is equivalent to 16% of all adults) report they are likely to purchase a digital camera in the coming twelve months.

As with most emerging technology, digital cameras are more popular among males (19% report having one versus 13% of females) and higher income Canadians (25% of those with a household income of $60K or more report having a digital camera, versus 7% of those with less than $40K in household income).

"Much like music, the Internet is having a significant impact on how a sizeable proportion of Canadians interact with their photographs", said Chris Ferneyhough, Vice president of technology research at Ipsos-Reid. "However, unlike the music industry, the photo industry is embracing the Internet and empowering digital photography users. With the support of the industry, decreasing hardware prices, and more user friendly software, this market is only going to increase in popularity in the coming twelve to twenty-four months."

Canadians who are using digital cameras or have scanned film-based photographs into their computer are utilizing a number of different tools to manipulate, store, and share their photographs. For example, 81% of those using digital photographs have emailed pictures to friends or family. Additionally, 60% have used photography software to manipulate photos.

A sizeable proportion have created digital photo albums, burned photographs onto a CD (24% each) or uploaded photos to a photo Web-service (20%).

"Canadians with digital photos are enjoying more functionality than they ever experienced with film based photos", said Ferneyhough. "Rather than taking the picture and sticking it in a photo album, first generation digital photo users are taking digital pictures, uploading them to their computers, using software to get rid of red-eye, emailing pictures to friends and families, and then storing them online or burning them on CDs for safe keeping."

One thing that digital photo users are not doing is paying to have a Webservice print and deliver the pictures. Only 3% report having had this done.

"We find it interesting that this figure is so low. When you take into account the cost of photo-quality paper, printers, and ink, it may very well be more cost effective to have these services print your photos for you", said Ferneyhough. "However, with the popularity of one-hour photo shops, it is clear that we like to have our pictures at our disposal right away, and this immediacy is something that online photo printing services just can't compete with. The decreasing prices of photo-quality printers appears to be paving the way for the home film lab."

According to Ferneyhough the future of digital photography in Canada looks even more promising because of the importance being placed on the technology by such heavyweights as Kodak, Fujitsu, and Microsoft. Microsoft, for one, plans to include digital photography support in the upcoming release of the Windows XP operating system.

The "Canadian Inter@ctive Reid Report" is the largest, most comprehensive and authoritative source of its kind about quarterly Internet trends in Canada. The results are based on two separate data collection instruments. In the first, 1,000 web users from Ipsos-Reid's Canadian Internet Panel are surveyed online. Panelists are chosen through random telephone surveys conducted on an ongoing basis across Canada. Results are complemented by a further 1,000 interviews via telephone with Canadian adults in order to verify results of the panel, and track issues among non-Internet users. The most recent quarterly results were collected between June 20th and June 30th, 2001. These data are statistically weighted to reflect the population proportions of regular online users by online expertise and regional distribution. Our panelists represent approximately 12.6 million Canadian adult Internet users who are online for one hour a week or more (there are a total of 15.6 million adults who have Internet access).

With a national sample of 1,000 (for each component), one can say with 95% certainty that the overall results are within a maximum of 1773.1 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire population of Canada's regular online users been surveyed. The margin of error will be larger for sub-groupings of the survey population.

Established in 1979, Ipsos-Reid is Canada's leading market research and public opinion company. Its is best known for the Angus Reid Express Poll, the most widely quoted source of public opinion in the country. Founded by Dr. Angus Reid, Ipsos-Reid has conducted extensive market and social research in 80 countries and in 40 languages, and serves clients around the world through more than 300-professionals and 1,000 data collection staff in eleven offices. The company is a member of the Paris-based Ipsos Group, ranked among the top ten research companies in the world.

For more information, contact:
Chris Ferneyhough,
Vice President,
Technology Research
Ipsos-Reid Toronto
t: 416.324.2283
e: [email protected]

Steve Mossop,
Senior Vice President,
Technology Research
Ipsos-Reid Vancouver
t: 604.893-1609
e: [email protected]