Brazilian is fastest growing market for Kodak
O Estado de São Paulo
The international market of digital cameras is going through a phase of stagnation, but it is experiencing a sort of "fever" in Brazil, leading the expansion in the sales of Kodak in the world. That's what says John E. Blake, Vice-President of North American giant, who visited the Country last week. "Brazil is the market of greater growth. We had a two-digit growth in first half of the year", said the Executive.
According to the GfK Research Institute, the sales of cameras grew 51% in the country between January and August 2010, compared to the same period last year. In values, it was a 40% growth, because the price of the product decreased 6% in the period. The GfK also shows the consumers seeks cameras that offer better definition images - 74% of the sales in the category are focused on at least 9-megapixel models.
According to Blake, the digital camera market is currently stable at 125 million units a year - with a tendency of a slight fall in the coming years. Market sources, however, indicate that in countries where the technology is already fairly widespread, such as Japan, the sales curve is already descending. For that reason, the companies in the photograph segment are beginning to treat the emerging markets such as "first class" consumers.
Brazil already appears in the plans to develop new Kodak products. In 2009, the company started the development of a camera whose purpose was to allow the easier sharing of images on social networks like Facebook. To please the Brazilian public, Orkut, which was more popular in the country at the time, was also included. "Today, the tool for Orkut is available worldwide. But we started the inclusion of the social network in our production by Manaus", said Richard Ford, Director of Segment of Digital Cameras of the company for the Americas.