The role of camera-bundled image management software in the consumer digital imaging value chain

This research was undertaken by the Convergence Center at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies (www.digital-convergence.info). Project ICONICA, the name for the research, focuses on the strategic implications of digital Images and the CONvergence of Image management and image CApture. Consumer imaging - the activity that we once called “photography” - is now recognized as in the throes of a digital transformation. At the end of 2003, market researchers estimated that about 30% of the households in the U.S. and 40% of the households in Japan owned digital cameras. In 2004, of the 86 million new cameras sold (excluding one-time use cameras), a majority (56%) were estimated to be digital cameras. Sales of photographic film, while still profitable, are declining precipitously.