With the explosion of smartphone sales and usage, digital camera producers face a daunting task of survival. The latest crop of smartphones continue to improve their camera features at such a rapid pace, with camera manufacturers again in the cross hairs of obsolescence.

Smartphones are eating their lunch. Consumers ( users of digital point and shoot cameras)  have voted with their wallets, they no longer wish to carry multiple devices to communicate. Users of digital point and shoot cameras primarily use them to record life events, not in stunning detail, but with enough quality to share with friends and family. Current models of smartphones now have the ability to do just that, but also permit users to instantly share these events on social media and other media formats, such as email, blogs, etc.

Why should anyone purchase a digital point and shoot camera? While smartphone cameras can produce quality images, the ergonomics are not quite there yet and digital point and shoot cameras have many features not currently available on smartphones, i.e., quality flash, fast frame rates for sequential picture taking, numerous program shooting modes, and superior optics.

How can digital camera manufacturers survive? In a word, BRANDING. Now is the time for digital camera producers acknowledge to their place in today’s market and quickly form partnerships with smartphone makers. By licensing their technology and lending their name to future phone designs, they can attempt to secure a place in the fast paced smartphone revolution. A smartphone featuring a Nikkor lens or powered by Canon’s Optical Stablizer technology would present additional marketing and revenue possibilities. By leveraging their powerful name recognition, camera manufacturers would instantly add value to any smartphone product line.

Time is not on their side. While it is possible camera manufacturers could enter the smartphone market themselves, it is not realistic to believe they could grab significant market share worth the substantial investment and risk involved.

The time to act is now. Camera producers have already performed the R&D and hold patents on lucrative photography technology, but need to make the difficult decision to go in another direction.

This show has already played out in the not-so-distant past when digital imaging first hit the shelves and film camera producers slow to embrace the change lost tons of shareholder value. The days of the digital point and shoot camera as we know them may be numbered, but hopefully we can still enjoy the quality of top camera manufacturers we’ve learned to love, for years to come.