Kodak Tops U.S. Digital Camera Market, Canon and Sony Follow

Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y., USA, captured the No. 1 slot in the ballooning U.S. digital camera market for a second straight year, extending its lead over Japanese rivals Canon Inc. and Sony Corp., reports The Associated Press.

Kodak shipped 7.05 million digital cameras to U.S. retailers last year, 43 percent more than in 2004. Tokyo-based Canon moved ahead of Sony into the No. 2 spot with 5 million shipments, a 16 percent increase, but its market slice still shrunk from 18.3 percent to 17.7 percent, according to data released by IDC, a research firm in Framingham, Mass., USA.

Japan's Sony, which lost its front-runner position in the U.S. market to Kodak for the first time in 2004, was third in 2005. It shipped 4.78 million cameras, up 10 percent from 2004, but its share of the U.S. market slumped to 16.9 percent from 18.5 percent, IDC said.

Canon benefited from robust sales of digital SLR cameras, IDC said, and Kodak is now increasingly shifting its focus toward boosting sales of higher-end models. Its new pocket-sized EasyShare V570 couples two lenses -- a 3x optical zoom lens and a specialized lens for ultrawide-angle pictures.

In the global digital-camera race, Kodak was third in 2004 with an 11.8 percent market share to Canon's 17.1 percent and Sony's 16.7 percent. Behind the top trio in the U.S. ranks in 2005 were Japan-based Nikon Corp. with an 8.2 percent share and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard Co. with 7.5 percent. Next in line were Olympus Corp. with 6.9 percent and Fuji Photo Film Co. with 6.3 percent, IDC said.