Digital Camera News: Canon Rebate Program, Canon Leads Sales, Kodak Moving Up, Digital Camera market "running out of steam"

"Cash In with Canon" Rebate Program

Buy a Canon EOS 20D or Canon EOS-1D Mark II from a Canon USA authorized dealer or reseller between 4/15/2005 and 7/1/2005 and get a rebate of $100 on the EOS 20D and a rebate of $500 on the EOS-1D Mark II.

From the press release: "To claim rebate, purchases must be made April 15 through July 15, 2005. Customers must complete and submit the following to be postmarked by August 8, 2005 and received by August 15, 2005: rebate form, received at time of purchase; a copy of the sales receipt with price paid, dealer name, product model and date clearly legible; a copy of the customer portion of the original Canon U.S.A. warranty card and an original cut-out of the UPC code and body/lens number."

Press Release

Canon Leads Digital Camera Sales Last Year, Kodak Moves Up

According to a report from IDC, Canon had a slim lead in digital camera sales globally last year by being able to capitalized on the demand for higher-end cameras.  Canon sold enough cameras to hit 17.1% of the market, Sony has 16.7%, and Kodak had 11.8%.

Canon's aggressive pricing on digital SLRs helped open up the demand for the more sophisticated cameras, with many sub-$1000 models avaiable.  According to the report, the demand for the digital SLRs was at the cost of demand for "prosumer" models.

The other interesting bit from the IDC report was that Kodak leapfrogged over Olympus to take the #3 spot in total sales worldwide.  In the US, Kodak topped digital camera sales.

For further coverage, head over to CNET.

Digital Still Camera Market is "Running out of Steam"

According to Strategy Analytics, the demand for camera phones will adversely affect the demand for digital still cameras in the future.  Four in 10 mobile phones sold last year included cameras in them for a total of 257 million camera phones, outselling digital cameras four to one.

For more, check The Register.