Camera sales have dropped significantly over the past decade. Cameras with built-in lenses dropped a massive 94% between 2010 and 2023. Smartphones are the reason for this drop in sales.

Camera sales in 2010 saw over 100 million compact cameras shipped globally. By 2023, that number fell to less than 2 million. Canon and Nikon both saw huge drops in sales, especially in the entry-level market. The damage was driven almost entirely by smartphones. As phone cameras got sharper, faster, and more versatile, people stopped buying dedicated cameras for everyday use. The hardest-hit category was point-and-shoot cameras. These were small and convenient, designed for casual photography. Today, that same convenience is handled better by a phone. Almost everyone uses their smartphone to take regular photos, and the entire compact camera segment has, for the most part, collapsed as a result.

How Smartphones Took Over Everyday Photography

In 2010, over 109 million compact cameras were shipped globally. By 2023, that number had dropped to just 1.7 million. The sharpest decline was in small, casual-use models.At the same time, smartphone ownership jumped from under 30% to over 85%, putting capable cameras in nearly every pocket.

DSLR shipments fell by around 40% between 2013 and 2023. Mirrorless systems gained ground, rising from 4.1 to 4.9 million in 2023. Interchangeable-lens cameras have since stabilized at around 6 million units a year.Compact cameras did not just fall out of favor, they were replaced by something faster and more connected. DSLRs declined, but mirrorless adapted. The market cut its entry-level tier and focused on serious users.

Photography itself changed with that shift. What used to be a standalone tool became part of something everyone already owned. Smartphone manufacturers pushed hard in that space. Year after year, image quality improved with better low-light performance, faster autofocus, and stronger HDR. Shooting became seamless. No extra gear, no file transfers. Just open the camera, take the shot, and share.

Software was the breakthrough. Smartphone manufacturers leaned into computational imaging to overcome the limits of small sensors. Features like portrait mode, night mode, and real-time processing gave people sharp, stylized results with zero effort.The way people take photos changed too. Most no longer reach for a separate camera. Their phone is faster, more convenient, and consistently good enough for anything from daily moments to social media. That shift in behavior is why the compact camera market disappeared. Photography did not vanish, it just moved into the device we all carry.

Interview With Vivo

In my interview with Keshav Chugh, Product Manager for Image Effects, it became clear that for the team, the camera is not just a part of the phone, it is the phone. While not stated outright, the message was clear. These are not phones with cameras attached. They are cameras that happen to make phone calls.The interview happened just before the launch of the X200, which made sense given the focus.

That mindset runs through everything they do. From product design to marketing, the camera comes first. The devices are built around image-making. Teams work closely with photographers to understand how people shoot and view images, and they collaborate with partners like Zeiss to keep pushing the hardware forward. Chugh explained that this isn’t just branding. It’s a real partnership built on constant exchange, aimed at delivering meaningful improvements with every release.

And the results are there. Smartphone photography today looks nothing like it did five years ago. It is not just about more megapixels. It is better image processing, cleaner low-light shots, richer color tones, smoother video, and improved stability. All the small things add up to real-world quality. The image pipeline has evolved dramatically, and the performance of devices like the X100 Pro and X200 Pro shows what that effort can deliver.

Even their branding reflects this shift. The Vision Plus Mobile PhotoAwards are a global photography competition exclusively for images taken on their phones. These awards celebrate street photography, portraiture, documentary, and fine art. This is not just a showcase. It shows intent. They are putting their camera systems in the same creative space as traditional photography, judged by serious image makers, and inviting users to treat their smartphones like real tools, not just gadgets. You see the same focus on their social media, where the first thing you will notice is portrait photography. It is not a coincidence. It is the point.

During the interview, Chugh summed it up well. They are not trying to compete with professional cameras. He said, “They serve a different purpose. We are not replacing them, we are part of the same world.” And he is right. Professional cameras are still unmatched in certain areas. But smartphones never went after that space. What they did do is replace point-and-shoots, and they did it without compromise.On paper, it might look like that segment of the industry collapsed. In reality, it evolved. Smartphones took over the job compact cameras used to do—casual photography, convenience, portability—and then did it better. Faster sharing, smarter processing, always connected, always on hand. The product that replaced compact cameras is not a lesser version. It is a more capable tool. And it is the one most people actually use.

So did smartphones kill the camera industry? No. They replaced a major part of it with something better.

What Cameras Still Do Better

Smartphones have changed photography, but there are still clear limits to what they can do. In our interview, Keshav Chugh acknowledged that smartphones took over casual photography, but the demands of professional work remain different.

Sensor size is still a major factor. Even the most advanced smartphone sensors are small compared to those in DSLRs or mirrorless cameras. Larger sensors gather more light, produce better depth, and retain more information in highlights and shadows. Phones rely on processing to make up that difference, and while the results have improved dramatically, the gap is still there.

Lenses also set dedicated cameras apart. Smartphones use fixed, compact lenses while mirrorless and DSLR systems offer wide angles, fast primes, telephotos, macro options, and more. That range of choice matters in professional settings where control over framing, depth, and perspective is not just useful, it is necessary.

Workflow is another consideration. Professional shoots demand long battery life, support for external monitors, audio gear, lighting setups, and full integration with editing tools. Smartphones were never built for that kind of environment and are rarely used in it.

The reason smartphones replaced point-and-shoot cameras is because they offered something better for everyday use. But they were never intended to replace high-end systems. That part of the market is still here because the need for it never went away. For serious work, dedicated gear remains the right choice.

Where Smartphones Still Fall Short

For all the progress smartphones have made in photography, there is still one area that remains a real weakness, and that is image processing. This is something even the best smartphones struggle with. The issue is not just about AI, although that plays a big role. The real problem is that smartphones are trying too hard. They are not just capturing an image. They are interpreting it, reconstructing it, and sometimes replacing it with something that looks more like a visual guess than a photograph.

AI is being used aggressively, to the point where certain parts of the image are not really what the camera saw. Instead, they are what the phone thinks you wanted to see. Skies are blended. Faces are smoothed. Textures are altered. Details are generated. While the results might look good at a glance, they often fall apart when you look closely. The image stops being a record and starts becoming a simulation. That changes the nature of the photograph entirely.

Even if you ignore the AI angle and just look at what smartphones do with JPEGs, you can see how deep the problem runs. Files from almost all smartphones are over-processed by default. There is too much contrast, too much sharpening, too much noise reduction. You end up with files that feel cooked. Shadows are crushed, highlights look unnatural, and fine textures are lost. The sharpening makes details look crunchy, like the image is made of fragments instead of subtle tones. It feels like the processing is fighting the image rather than supporting it.

Yes, you can shoot in raw and process the files yourself, but that defeats the point. The whole advantage of using a smartphone is speed and simplicity. You shoot, you tweak, you post. If you have to bring every image into Lightroom Mobile just to get a natural look, you lose a huge part of the benefit that smartphones are meant to offer. It turns a quick moment into a workflow, and that is not what these devices are supposed to be about.

Smartphones have made enormous progress, but image processing is still one of the biggest things holding them back.

Final Thoughts

The camera industry did not die. It split. Smartphones now dominate the space once held by point-and-shoot cameras. They are faster, more convenient, and always connected. For most people, that is more than enough.

At the same time, professional and enthusiast systems still hold their ground. They are no longer part of everyday photography, but they serve the users who need full control, larger sensors, and a more precise workflow. That segment adapted rather than disappeared.

But even in the space where smartphones dominate, there is still work to be done. Image processing remains a major limitation. Convenience has come at the cost of accuracy. In trying to impress, smartphones sometimes lose the essence of what was actually captured. Until that is addressed, the gap between what is easy and what is real will remain.