Canon Inc won the top market share in global digital camera shipments in 2006, and South Korea's Samsung Electronics jumped up the ranks to 5th place from 9th a year ago, researcher IDC said on April 3.

Tokyo-based Canon shipped 19.7 million digital cameras in 2006, accounting for 18.7% of the overall market. Canon's shipments jumped 23.3% from 2005, IDC said.

Industrywide digital camera shipments in 2006 rose 14.5% to 106 million units from a year earlier, driven by the strong popularity of single-lens reflex (DSLR) models geared for photo enthusiasts and professionals and growing demand in emerging markets, IDC said.

DSLR shipments grew 39% to five million units last year. Sony Corp was number two in the market with a 15.8% share, up from 15.2% in 2005, benefiting from its entry into the DSLR market, IDC said.

Eastman Kodak, the only US company among the top five digital camera makers, ranked third with 10%, a drop from its 14.2% share a year earlier. Olympus Corp, which came in fourth, trimmed its share to 8.6% from 9.8% in 2005.

"The big winner in 2006 was Samsung, who displaced Nikon and became the fifth-largest seller of digital cameras in the world," said Christopher Chute, an IDC analyst.

Samsung expanded its market share to 7.8% in 2006, a huge jump from the 3.8% it had a year earlier. Its shipments more than doubled, IDC said. Nikon Corp, the world's second-biggest maker of professional cameras after Canon, ranked number six in the overall digital camera market with a 7.6% market share in 2006.

Canon also dominated the booming DSLR market, securing a 46.7% share in 2006, with its shipments rising 30.7% from a year earlier. But its share was trimmed from the 49.5% it had in 2006 amid increased competition from rivals.

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