Is the DSLR fad over?

Of course camera manufacturers appreciate that convenience matters to consumers. Convenience has driven the consumer market for decades and everyone knew it. All of the periods of boom in the industry coincided with advancements in convenience.

The digital revolution is all about expedience. It's the people who are just seeing it now who are behind the curve. An old friend who is a Canon sales rep predicted the decline of the point-and-shoot digital market caused by phones about a decade ago. I doubt he was the first. Roughly 70 million interchangeable lens cameras were sold globally over the last 5 years. I'm sure I'm not making any unwarranted assumptions in stating that working professionals are only a small proportion of those buyers - the BLS estimates 136,000 professional photographers in the US. Worldwide, maybe it's a million or two?

I'm sure all of us know quite a few amateur SLR owners. Most of them bought the camera because they wanted better quality and were told what equipment could provide it and was within their budget, but were never willing to learn how to use the camera to get that quality. Instead, they quickly tired of carrying around a larger camera that when used on auto-mode produces photos that are only slightly better than what the better mobile phones are producing these days.

A very large proportion of the SLR owners I know almost never use them any more. Since after an initial period of enthusiasm with the new device, they now mostly sit shelves, these buyers probably won't be returning to push those sales numbers back up in the future. These are the people I'm referring to as following a fad.

Obviously, not the professionals. They buy what they need for their job, and will continue to do so. Nor for a fairly sizable number of hobbyists like myself, willing to make at least some extra effort and investment in pursuit of quality rather than settling for convenience.