Rob Thubron:

Over the last few years, we’ve seen the quality of smartphone cameras continue to rise. Not surprisingly, the worldwide popularity of handsets has affected the digital camera market, and according to the CEO of Canon, the situation is going to get a lot worse over the next couple of years.

Fujio Mitarai, boss of the Japanese giant, warned that the digital camera industry would keep declining. He said that by around 2021, it will have reached its lowest point, having shrunk by almost 50 percent.

The writing has been on the wall for a long time as smartphones first decimated the point and shoot market and now, according to Canon, may very well drive the company out of the consumer DSLR market as well.