Worldwide Market for Digital Picture Frames - 2007 Edition

Once characterized as a small, nascent market based upon seasonal gift-giving, the worldwide digital picture frame (DPF) market has exploded over the last few years with shipments surpassing 10 million units in 2007 accounting for an estimated $648 million in retail revenues. This robust growth is expected to continue as new technology and usage models for DPFs emerge.

DPFs allow for the stylish display of high resolution images and video outside of what is traditionally associated with the black lacquer and metallic grey A/V devices in our homes. IMS Research analyst Mark Meza states, “The converged digital home is evolving at such a rapid pace that a niche market has been created for a product designed and fashioned specifically for accentuating the home décor and not necessarily as an extension of the traditional home entertainment center.”

CE manufacturers and component suppliers are betting that the driving force behind the growth of this market will continue to be the potential for DPFs to not only provide a slideshow of images and video clips commemorating memorable events, but to also function as information display devices. The usage model formerly reserved for occasional reverent appreciation of the family photo album is now a means to deliver instantaneous up-to-date information on weather, news, stock quotes, and advertisements with the added bonus of creating aesthetic value to a dead corner of the room, or a bland, featureless wall.

“The potential exists for a single home to have a DPF as the centerpiece in each room, with the dual function of being a digital display and a real-time information source. This adds huge potential for market growth as DPFs develop into much more than a one-time purchase of a ‘dumb display device' that sits on the mantle in the background of the living room,” adds Meza. Wireless technologies are poised to play a major role in driving the transition of the DPF market from single one-time purchases for friends and family, to mass adoption via multiple repeat purchases for a single user' s home.