U.S. digital still camera and digi-cam sales jumped 13.5 percent to 20.5 million units in 2005, according to PMA Marketing Research, which predicts sales will increase slightly this year and then begin to decline in a mature market in 2007. At that time, the focus will shift more sharply toward output and other related services. This bodes well for ancillary items such as photo paper, cartridges, batteries, additional memory and lenses.

More consumers are opting to print their digital photos at home, despite the fact that the cost of lab-produced prints continues to decline, to less than 30 cents/print. U.S. shipments of printers, copiers and multi-function units increased 13 percent during 2005 over the previous year, according to the Gartner Group. Almost all photo printers now use standard USB cables for connection, but there’s a catch. Printers no longer come packaged with cables, making the purchase of additional USB cables a must.