Kodak digital camera shipments down 20%

Eastman Kodak Co.’s digital camera shipments fell 20% last year as the world’s largest photography company limited sales of lower-priced devices to shore up profit, researcher IDC said.

Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak maintained third place in the worldwide digital camera market last year, behind Canon Inc. and Sony Corp., IDC analyst Christopher Chute said. The company’s share shrank to 10%, or 10.6 million units, from 14.2%, or 13.1 million units, in 2005.

Global shipments among all digital camera companies grew about 15% to 106 million units, IDC said.