Worldwide shipment proportion of HD-ready (1280 x 800 or 1280 x 720) notebook webcam in 2011 is expected to rise 23 percentage points to 35% from 2010 as the prices of HD webcams will drop, according to Digitimes Research.
Due to notebooks' limited network bandwidth for smooth video streaming and limited budgets for components, shipments of 1.3-megapixel and 2-megapixel notebook webcams did not see any significant growth in 2009, said Digitimes Research analyst Jenny Yang.
But shipments of VGA (640 x 480) notebook webcams increased on year to account for 66% of the total webcam shipments in 2009.
In the future, VGA webcams will continue to be the mainstream for netbooks and entry-level notebooks, while HD and higher resolution webcams will mainly be used in mid-range and high-end models.
| Digitimes Research: Shipments of notebooks with built-in webcams, 2009-2011 (k units) | |||
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| 2009 | 2010(f) | 2011(f) |
| Global notebook shipments | 162,475 | 201,727 | 243,729 |
| Notebooks with webcams | 125,000 | 158,200 | 194,500 |
| Y/Y for notebooks with webcams | 61.1% | 26.6% | 22.9% |
| Share of notebooks with webcams | 76.9% | 78.4% | 79.8% |
Source: Digitimes Research, compiled by Digitimes, March 2010
