Price of Digital Frames Expected to Drop

80 Percent of Digital Photo Frame Manufacturers in China Expected to Lower Prices

One of the more popular items this holiday season is digital photo frames. There is good news for any shoppers that have waited to make this purchase, as 80 percent of manufacturers located in China are expected to lower their prices according to a new report. The report is titled "China Sourcing Report: Digital Photo Frames" from Global Sources. This information was provided in a recent press release from Global Sources.

Digital photo frames are an item that first become highly sought after last holiday season and have continued their popularity during the current holiday shopping season. They allow the owner to insert multiple digital photos by either using a digital photo card, or connecting to a home computer or camera using a USB cord. Some digital photo frames also allow the owner to add MP3 music files to the display of their digital photos on the photo frame.

37 percent of these digital photo frames are destined for U.S. markets according to the press release. The largest percentage, 60 percent, of these items are destined for the European Union market. The biggest reason for the decrease in price according to digital photo frame manufacturers in the press release is price competition. 65 percent of the manufacturers surveyed indicated price competition is their primary challenge in the digital photo frame market. Other issues that manufacturers cites as challenges in the marketplace include raw material costs (16 percent), design copying/piracy (10 percent), strict overseas standards in the marketplace (5 percent) and labor shortage (4 percent).

"With a growing number of portable media makers branching out into digital photo frames, competitions is expected to continue intensifying, with the supplier base expected to double by the end of 2007", commented Spenser Au, who is the publisher of the report. Cushioning price decreases for suppliers are today's lower component costs. As the number of local component providers has grown, digital photo frame makers now have better access to less-expensive, but high performance PCBs, LCDs, and other components.", continued Au.