Nov 28, 2001

The total production of digital cameras in Taiwan this year is expected to reach six million pieces, said Mrs.Dr. Wen Jean Hsueh, program director of Imaging Technology of the government-backed ITRI ( Industrial Technology Research Institute) during a briefing for the foreign press this week in Taipei. Her job is program leader of the Opto-Electronics & Systems Laboratory at ITRI.

In her sales forecast, she said that the production of Taiwan's digital camera makers is geared to take 40% of the world market. Taiwan is expected to manufacture six million units this year and 8 million unites next year, she pointed out. Las year,, Taiwan's output was 3.8 million cameras with revenues of approximately US$423 million.

The estimated revenues of the digital camera industry of Taiwan would reach US$1.3 billion next year, US$1.4 billion in 2003, and US$1.83 billion in 2004, while to total revenue of the world market were estimated at US$8.9 billion in 2002, US$10.7 billion in 2003, and US$12.6 billion in 2004.

The mainstream products of Taiwan digital cameras are models with 2.1 MegaPixels.
However, Premier Imaging Technology Corp. already announced the arrival of a 4.1 MegaPixel camera with 4x zoom for early next year. In the avera, 3 MegaPixel models will become a standard product for Taiwan. Dr. Hsue said, while digital cameras in the range of 1 million to 1.9 million pixel will grow steadily for the lower end mass market.

The world demand for digital cameras will reach 22 million units in 2002, 28 illion in 2003, and 36.4 million in 2004. The composite annual growth in the next three years is expected to be greater than 35% .