Samsung has announced that it will gradually reduce its compact camera portfolio to focus on the growing mirrorless camera market. The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung currently has "about a five-percent share, and is targeting to become the biggest mirrorless camera vendor by 2015 with a more than twenty-percent marketshare." Han Myoung-sup, head of the company's digital imaging division says that Samsung's "low-end compact camera offerings will gradually be reduced, as we are now concentrating on the mirrorless segment." Recent years have seen the compact camera decline in popularity, as smartphones continue to improve their image quality, and more and more of us are purchasing DSLRs and mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras.
Market research firm IDC estimates that worldwide mirrorless camera sales will increase by 60 percent to 6.43 million units this year, with the DSLR market growing 18 percent to 16.76 million. Samsung has started to convert the compact manufacturing lines at its main camera plant in China to produce mirrorless models. The company recently announced its 2012 lineup of mirrorless cameras, which augment the traditional camera experience with built-in Wi-Fi, Instagram-style filters, and social features.