The computational photography market may be worth nearly US$30 billion by 2024

Photography has moved far beyond purely hardware-based imaging techniques into those that leverage advanced examples of the same with the software to match. Today, we find it all around us, from the mobile processors that convert multi-lens data into smartphone photos to AIs that use their own cameras to "learn" with. Applications such as these are collectively known as computational photography.

The combined market for this general form of imaging was estimated to pull in US$7.9 billion all together in 2018. However, this is now thought to be capable of growing to $29 billion in 2024. This means it could grow at an impressive compound annual rate of 22% over these 5 years.

This potential success is thought to be influenced by a decline in demand for high-end, professsional-level standalone cameras, set against the rising popularity of advanced imaging techniques instead. Reseach has also shown that there are some specific leading companies in the computational photography market. They include Google's parent company Alphabet, as well as Apple, Light, Qualcomm and NVIDIA.