Every year, the PMA Trade Show seems to have a certain “unofficial” theme - a hot new technology or product that gets all the attention. Back when the digital photography market was still young, there were always new camera technologies that stood out, ranging from powerful optical zoom lenses to image stabilization and, more recently, face recognition. Most of what was shown in new camera introductions at PMA 2008 were evolutions of existing technologies or features, with no real surprises. We’re also used to seeing lower prices on cameras, so the introduction of new, fully featured models with powerful lenses and high-resolution sensors at incredibly low prices is not big news anymore.

On the output side of the market, 2008 was the year of the second-generation dry minilab lab, which use inkjet or thermal printing systems instead of traditional chemical-based silver halide photo processing. Every vendor that showed a dry lab in 2007 (or earlier) offered a new version this year, with a couple of new players also entering the market. Most of the improvements had to do with additional output options and improved management and sorting of finished orders. While dry labs offer numerous capital cost and operational advantages, the running costs per print for both inkjet and thermal printing remain higher than for silver halide printing. That gap is narrowing, and as the existing installed base of silver-halide minilabs is amortized or reaches mechanical end-of-life, we’ll see more and more of them exchanged for dry labs.

Photo merchandise continues to grow in popularity, and more vendors at PMA 2008 were showing their latest products and designs in photo books, greeting cards, posters, calendars and various other items in all shapes and sizes. Photo books will continue to grow in popularity, as more options become available at more places and consumers become more comfortable with the process of creating and producing them, aided by improved online, desktop and kiosk software that makes the process easier than ever. Photo books are here to stay, and we may see them start replacing traditional print albums on consumers’ shelves over the next year. They’re great for retailers too, as they have higher margins than the print side of the business. While the majority of photo books, calendars and greeting cards are printed in central production facilities using digital presses, vendors continue to offer a variety of inkjet and electrophotographic systems that allow retailers to produce those items in their stores.

Even with all the advancements we’ve seen in digital photography over the last few years, there are still some areas of the market that are the industry’s “elephants in the closet” and are not being adequately addressed. The storage and archiving of digital images is going to be a big problem for many consumers over the next couple of years as digital photo collections grow at a rapid rate. Much confusion still exists over the best and easiest way to organize photos and keep them for the long term. Most consumers don’t want to put much thought into managing their photos, so it’s up to the industry to find ways to make it easy for them.

David Haueter
Associate Director, InfoTrends