Actually, the "sleeper" element that is keeping the film business alive and well is the "disposable/one-time-use" (or to be more fashionable, now "recyclable") camera market.
Anyone reading this knows that despite the profusion of portable digitial imaging devices (read: just about every handheld out there now) you still find those ubiquitous Fuji Quicksnaps and Kodak Funsavers in the checkout line racks at just about
any major retailer.
Why?
The desire in the mass market for a simple, turnkey way to get a physical print.
And in that mass market every other method of getting a print is still a #(&@!* hassle. Home printing is
not the panacea promised (the cost adds up and the printers
never work flawlesly) and not everyone enjoys the tedium of uploading stuff for printing to Walgreens or sitting at a kiosk there trying to get their SD card to be read properly. The disposable is often cheaper and
always simpler, which is why -- despite its serious technical limitations --it shows no signs of disappearing.
Sales (at least reported sales) of the FILM disposables (there's some digital options out there, now, too) declines about 25% - 30% year over year and has since about 2004 (coincidentally, right around the time Kodak announced they were not longer going to produce film cameras..other than the disposables..any more). At least according to Kodak and Fuji's own numbers.
It might be keeping film afloat, but even that's sinking fast.
They're convenient and they're also set up as impulse buys....two big advantages, especially for younger kids and tweens. They're also GREAT for events where you want to give your guests the ability to take pictures (outings, parties, weddings). They also require no large investment of funds, up front (though, you can get a decent digital camera for not much more). And they do the job, even if they do it in a more expensive manner. It's never cheaper per print..because you're paying a premium for the camera ($12 to $20, depending on where you're buying it), you're paying for processing ($6 - $10) AND you're paying for printing of EVERYTHING you snap (you lose the ability to edit and delete as you can with digital) ($4 - $6 on a roll of 36 exposures)....for a low end total of around $22 for those 36 pictures. With digital, all you're paying for is the print, the camera, and the storage medium (which is actually cheaper, at this point, than film)...with the camera and the storage medium being reuseable. Even considering the convenience factor, the disposable film camera is a dying breed. There's just too many better options out there (digital cameras, camera phones, and coming digital disposables).
FYI: We've walked into Walmarts, Walgreens, CVS', and Targets, handed them our SD card and asked them for prints in an hour. Usually, we get our prints, and our card, returned to us. Sometimes they take the card, upload for us, and hand it back to us. Isn't that what they're SUPPOSED to do? Granted, that's not going to work if your preferred camera is your phone. In that case..I guess we would copy them to a flash drive or CD and do the same thing.
If your local photo stop isn't doing that....ask them why. Ours do. Maybe it's just because we're from a relatively "small town" area....