Digital camcorder and its China market
2008-08-20

 

                                     Digital camcorder and its China market

A digital camcorder is a portable consumer electronics device for recording video and audio using a built-in recorder unit. The digital camcorder contains both a video camera and a video recorder in one unit, hence its compound name. The digital camcorder was developed by companies such as JVC, Sony, and Kodak. It first used analog videotape. Since the 1990s, recording onto digital tape has become normal. And since 2000, tape as storage media is being gradually replaced with tape-free solutions like optical disks, hard disk drives and solid-state memory.

As the mainstream consumer market favors ease of use, portability, and price, consumer camcorders emphasize these features more than raw technical performance. For example, good low-light capabilities require large capturing chips, which affects price and size. Thus, consumer camcorders are often unable to shoot useful footage in dim light (though some units, particularly single-chip units by Sony, offer night vision capability). Manual controls need space, either in menus or as buttons and make the use more complicated, which goes against the requirement of ease of use. Consumer units offer a plethora of I/O options (IEEE 1394/Firewire, USB 2.0, Composite and S-Video), but lack many manual settings, often excluding video exposure, gain control, or sound level management. For the beginner, entry-level camcorders offer basic recording and playback capability.

Before the 21st century, consumer video editing was a difficult task requiring a minimum of two recorders. Now, however, a contemporary Personal Computer of even modest power can perform digital video editing with editing software. Many consumer camcorders bundle a light (feature-limited) version of such software, as do some computers, and more advanced software is widely available at a variety of price points.

In 2007, digital camcorders are still available but not widely marketed anymore; those that are still available are often less than US$250, but require special capture hardware for non-linear editing. In terms of sales, miniDV camcorders dominate most first world markets. Camcorders which record directly on DVD media are also on the rise, primarily among users with no plans to edit their footage. Nonetheless, software for editing video files created by DVD camcorders is available, including Womble DVD and VideoRedo. The evolution of the camcorder has seen the growth of the camcorder market as price reductions and size reductions make the technology more accessible to a wider audience. When camcorders were first introduced, they were bulky shoulder-operated luggables that cost over $1,500 US dollars. As of 2008, an entry-level camcorder fits in the palm of a person's hand and is sold at a retail price of approximately 100 US dollars.

Recently, CCID Consulting released a report and forecasts that China's digital camera and camcorder shipments to reach 18.78 million by 2012, with a five year CAGR 11.2%. The digital camcorder segment is by far the larger, with 2012 shipments reaching 15.85 million at CAGR 10.8%. Digital camcorders 2012 shipments will be much less at 2.93 million, but with slightly larger growth at CAGR 13.5%.

And according to the report, in 2007, digital camera shipments reached 8.55 million, up 32.8% YoY, while digital camcorder shipments reached 1.22 million, 0.7%. Growth rate in 2007 was down from 2006, due in part by higher price points that precluded tapping full market potential.

There's been a bit of price relief among the top camcorder models listed on this site, though we've also seen recent price hikes (some other tech categories have shown fairly firm pricing of late; see "Flat-Screen Prices Still, Well, Flat; Some Even Rise, "Digital Cameras Capture Picture Of Emerging Inflation?") For example, since the end of January the Sony HDR-SR11 High Definition Handycam Camcorder with 60GB Hard Disk has dropped from $1,200 to a lowest price of about $1,050 among vendors on this site, though the lowest offered price has risen from as little as $900 in recent days. Here are the data. Time Period: 1/28/2008 through 4/28/2008 Each tick mark represents one week Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price

Similarly, Canon’s VIXIA HV20 high-def miniDV Camcorder has fallen from around $1,100 last February to south of $800 right now, though it also has risen from under $600 recently. Time Period: 2/5/2007 through 4/28/2008 Each tick mark represents one week Red = High Price, Blue = Average Price, Green = Low Price