Since you began reading this sentence, people around the world have taken more than one million pictures. By the time you will be done with this paragraph, they will have taken more photographs than the whole of humanity had in the 19th century. Undeniably, photography has become an integral part of modern life. However, despite the fact that we are now shooting more often than ever before, camera sales around the world are plummeting. The introduction of the smartphone, which split the digital photography industry into two - with camera phones on one end, advancedinterchangeable-lens cameras on the other, and nothing in the middle - is largely to blame for this decline. As the smartphone revolution continues to suffocate compact camera demand and forces more and more camera producers out of the market, it seems that only well-established companies with loyal consumer bases stand a chance at surviving in the long run. As of right now, only three firms - Canon, Nikon, and Sony - fulfill this criteria. Thus, dominated by the "Big Three" and typified by significant barriers to entry, the digital camera industry deviates from traditional conceptualizations of the perfect competition model, and can instead be better understood as both an oligopoly and oligopsony.
According to the classical economic theory, a purely competitive model refers to markets which are broadly characterized by a large number of producers and consumers, each without any substantial degree of market power, who are able to easily enter and exit market. An oligopoly, on the other hand, is used to describe markets which are mainly characterized by a small number of suppliers who are able to function as price "makers". Canon, Nikon, and Sony, collectively controlling over 84% of the industry, are able to function as oligopolists primarily due to the large existing barriers to entry and exit which discourage new entrants into the market.
