PhotoWorld-Dubai to showcase booming digital imaging industry

PhotoWorld-Dubai will be held March 15-17, in Hall 5 of the Dubai World Trade Center.
The most obvious example of this trend is the explosive growth in camera-phone sales - capable of capturing and sending images anywhere, instantly.

Numerous other developments in wireless imaging include the transfer of images from one PDA to another six inches away, from camera to printer three feet away, from a set-top box to a digital photo frame somewhere in the same house, from laptop to desktop in the same office building.

GfK - the German-based international market research institute will be making two exclusive presentations on imaging, from a global and ME market perspective, at PhotoWorld-Dubai.
GfK figures show that sales of digital cameras are growing at more than 60 per cent a year - up from 11 million in 2000 to 18 million in 2001 to 30 million in 2002, 50 million in 2003, and an estimated 77 million last year.

But these numbers are dwarfed by sales of camera-phones which have more than doubled every year since their introduction. From fewer than a million in 2000 to 180 million worldwide last year… a market revolution.

Camera-phones are also driving the dramatic increase in digital imaging and this year will overtake combined sales of digital and analogue cameras, says Justin Boutros, Managing Director of Channels Exhibitions, the organisers of Photo-World Dubai 2005.

Roughly 370 million digital cameras will be sold this year and more than three-quarters of them will be embedded in mobile phones.

'People carry their mobile phones with them wherever they go. If you've got a camera in that phone, it means you've now got a camera with you whenever a new photo opportunity occurs. 'Boy, I wish I'd had my camera!' becomes 'Look what I saw!''

The ubiquity of camera-phones will mean an explosion in the number of pictures taken. Early studies indicate that camera-phone users take more than twice as many pictures as digital or film camera users, precisely why Photo-World Dubai 2005 is being staged.

The show will be open to the trade and the public from 11am to 8pm and both sectors are responding enthusiastically to the opportunity to experience the very latest technology from the world's top manufacturers and suppliers.

Trade visitors are expected from across the Middle East, from Africa, Central Asia and the Asian sub-continent, from Europe and the Far East, while public attendance will be drawn primarily from the UAE and neighbouring countries.

Foreign exhibitors include AAA of Saudia Arabia, the Kingdom's leading chain of electronic and digital equipment suppliers; Huachang Photographic Backgrounds from China; Tenaui Minilabs from Singapore; A-One Industries, wholesaler and exporter of photographic items operating in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China; and market leader Henzo Photo Albums of the Netherlands.

Retailer Plug-Ins of the UAE will drive consumer sales at PhotoWorld-Dubai 2005 with leading world brands.

'The market data underline the ideal timing of Photo-World Dubai 2005 to capture the phenomenal growth in consumer and professional demand for digital imaging,' said Boutros. 'It will give professional photographers and enthusiasts unprecedented exposure to what is new in a highly dynamic industry.'