The Change Mariner

Everyone's Smiling for Digital Cameras

Technology News:

For Jim Barr, digital cameras are an early Christmas gift. As the general manager of commerce services at Microsoft's MSN, the country's second-largest Internet service provider, Barr tracks sales across dozens of categories in MSN's online shopping mall.

This year, digital cameras are on fire. "It's our top category," says Barr, who claims sales are up 40% to 50% vs. last year. He won't break out exact numbers on how many digital cameras MSN moves, but he says they account for a significant portion of consumer-electronics sales, a category that makes up 30% of the $11 billion-plus that MSN expects its visitors to spend at MSN Shopping's vendors this holiday season.

Barr's bounty is par for the course this year. Online and off, demand for digital cameras has exploded as consumers have warmed to capturing images in bits and bytes instead of on silver halide film. In 2003, their sales will eclipse those of analog film-based cameras in both market share and dollar value for the first time, according to a number of analysts and industry trackers including the Consumer Electronics Assn. (CEA).

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