U.S. Market Leading The Way in Digital Photo Frame Sales

According to the IDC, the forecast for wireless/digital photo frame sales is looking really good.

“Low prices, solid products, and surging customer interest reignited the digital photo frame market in 2006, ” said Tom Mainelli, senior research analyst with IDC’s Monitors and Projectors research team.  “We expect stellar growth well into the future if the industry can manage looming supply issues.”

IDC also quotes Ron Glaz, program direction, Digital Imaging Solutions and Services at IDC:  “As the desire to view digital images on soft displays rather than hardcopies grows, digital frames will realize significant shipment increases in all regions around the world.  To be successful in the future, digital frames will need to seamlessly fit into the evolving digital home content ecosystem and support wireless access to personal digital content for display.”

Worldwide shipments of digital frames reached 2.8 million units in 2006, with an average selling price of $168.00.  IDC predicts that sales will grow to 42.3 million units by 2011, with U.S. shipments representing over half of the market.

As with most electronics, prices are falling and quality is growing.

The wireless/digital frames are getting bigger, too.  In the beginning, the smaller frames (5 - 7 inch_ were the most prevalent, but the larger frames have surpassed them and will continue to do so throughout 2011.

According to the IDC, digital frame prices will be a major purchase influencer as overall worldwide prices decline an average of 16.5% from 2006 to 2011.

I can easily believe and understand these statistics just from following the posts on this blog.  Speaking as a consumer myself, I would want a smaller wireless/digital frame for my desktop and for the back of the piano, but I would DEFINITELY want the largest wireless/digital frame I could afford for a certain spot on the living room wall: a spot I’ve had earmarked for a HUGE wireless frame ever since I first heard of the concept.

I’m hoping Santa heard my wish.

I’ve got thousands of digital pictures on my computer’s hard drive, and I haven’t seen most of them in years.  With a wireless/digital photo frame, I could see all of them, slideshowing across the frame, on a regular basis.

I can’t wait to get mine.