Smile for the digital camera. And almost everybody, from consumers to camera and printer manufacturers, beams.

Digital camera sales have grown phenomenally year-on-year, outstripping those of film cameras for the first time last year. Some 53 million units are expected to march off the shelves in 2004 - a 30 percent jump from the 2003 sales figures of 41 million. According to the InfoTrends Research Group, film camera shipments will shrink by 25 percent, from 48 million to 36 million units, over the same period.

And there`s another group smiling: cellphone manufacturers who, despite slow initial market uptake and a dubious business case, can expect to sell a further 160 million camera phones by 2007.