Detailed Sony sales analysis for the japanese market in 2011.
Japan is the only market of the world offering super detailed info about camera sales. And this week BCNranking made a nice overview of the percentage sales in 2011. As you can see from the screenshot on top Sony is doing well in the compact camera market where it jumped on the second place with 15,1%. it was on position 4th in 2010. It’s not going well in the DSLR market but this has probably to do with the Thai flood consequences that made the A65 and A77 not available in reasonable numbers within 2011. Compared to 2010 Sony also lost 5% market share in the mirrorless market probably for the same reasons.
I think 2012 numbers will be more important because it will really show what’s the strength of the company in a “normal” year (a year without Tsunamis and Floods I hope!).
There is no such nice detailed market report in European and American countries. So I have to rely on the very general and “unscientific” Amazon rankings to see if a camera is popular or not. I give you here the links to check the current most sold cameras:
Amazon US:
DSLR ranking (Click here): No Sony camera in top 20 
Mirrorless ranking (Click here): NEX-5n rules!
Compact ranking (Click here): Canon dominates.
Lens ranking (Click here): No Sony in sight.
Amazon Germany:
DSLR ranking (Click here): No SLT camera in top 20
Mirrorless ranking (Click here): Again the NEX-5n on top!
Compact ranking (Click here): The HX100V is doing pretty well.
Amazon UK:
DSLR ranking (Click here): Again no Sony on top.
Mirrorless ranking (Click here): Sony NEX-5n on position two.
Compact ranking (Click here): Cnaon-Nikon domination.
Lens ranking (Click here): It’s a Canon world.
Amazon France:
DSLR ranking (Click here): Canon as usual…
Mirrorless ranking (Click here): NEX-5n and NEX-7 domination!
Compact ranking (Click here): Again Canon…
JB
2 years ago |“It’s not going well in the DSLR market but this has probably to do with the Thai flood consequences that made the A65 and A77 not available in reasonable numbers within 2011.”
Nikon can still release a D4 in March and D800 also Feb(one week after announcement). That is impressive since they just got hit as hard as Sony did.
Surely Sony can use the old A900/850 factory to catch up? Sony must have more factories than Nikon. I wonder.
Vlad
2 years ago |What is your point? Sony did release the A65 and A77. And Nikon’s stuff isn’t on the market.
SonyA77
2 years ago |That’s because Nikon don’t manufacture them in the same place Sony did, it’s bloody obvious when you think about it!
Maximus
2 years ago |The D4 and D800 are made in Japan, the Nikon stuff which is made in Thailand (or more preferable “was made”) is also unavailable or more expensive than at the release time. (eg D5100 oder D7000)
SonyA77
2 years ago |Exactly my point. I fail to understand why people can’t work this out though…
kinki
2 years ago |2012 will be end of the world, lolx
SonyA77
2 years ago |Give me all your money then, you won’t need it.
Yong
2 years ago |the figures show that SONY is still half-way-there only. No no.1 In almost all. Worst in DSLR—because not even top 3… worried
Pablo
2 years ago |Funny to see, that Olympus has more demand for it’s technologically most outdated cameras in the mirrorless segment. Hmmm. Could be due to the presence of IBIS in their cameras, couldn’t it?>
SONY, be reasonable, make a FF mirrorless with EVF and IBIS and you will get then even the snobby FF Canikon shooters under your roof.
Do it, or somebody else will. And you won’t sell any of your ugly silver NEX lenses to anyone afterwards…
Beer_Stalker
2 years ago |>Funny to see, that Olympus has more demand for it’s technologically most outdated cameras in the mirrorless segment. Hmmm. Could be due to the presence of IBIS in their cameras, couldn’t it?
No. Olympus bought market share through heavy discounting. BCN show the E-PL1s is going for Y26,800 and the twin lens kit for Y39,600. Compare this to the NEX-C3 twin lens kit at Y54,200.
ronnbot
2 years ago |Price difference is not that much but I guess the most consumers didn’t see much added value for the additional cost. Also, it could be other things like lack of small/quality lenses, lack of hotshoe, minimal physical controls, and etc. that turned away potential NEX buyers to m43. Oh, and the awesome NEX-7 was technically not available in 2011 and still kind of isn’t yet.
Kyle
2 years ago |E-PL1 is 3 generations old, hence the big discounts, while the C3 is the current entry NEX model. I find the NEX cameras to be priced much better than their m4/3 alternatives.
Joe
2 years ago |I’d be interested in the numbers for the time the A77 and A65 were in stock in 2011. Sony may not have sold the volume, but for the time being 100% of the A77′s and A65′s were sold, whereas there were a hundred Canon T3i’s still on the shelves at Walmart.
Archer66
2 years ago |Sony A33/A35/A55/A65/A77 sales are under “SLR mirror less” category NOT “SLR”.
Only Sony’s in SLR category are Axxx cameras.
E
2 years ago |Speculation or fact?
Troll of Bifröst
2 years ago |In case you do not know, Single Lens Reflex (SLR) system requires a mirror to operate. That word “Reflex” comes from a mirror that reflects light to a prism and into viewfinder.
Vlad
2 years ago |highly doubt they made the distinction in the statistics.
The Lotus Eater
2 years ago |Let’s ignore the fact that there is no such thing as “SLR mirrorless”. That’s a complete misnomer. SLR by its very nature has a mirror.
PhotoNut
2 years ago |The SLT cameras are not mirrorless. They do have a mirror. It is just that the mirror is mostly transmissive as well as partly reflective.
If Sony had on-sensor phase-detection then there would be absolutely no reason for to have a mirror (fully silvered or ‘translucent’) at all and there would be no 30% light loss as on the Sony SLT cameras.
pancanikonpus
2 years ago |A mount =DSLR
E mount =Mirrorless
The Lotus Eater
2 years ago |-delete-
Andrew
2 years ago |Everyone jump ship, Sony is no longer safe!!
SonyA77
2 years ago |and sell me all your Sony lenses at bargain rates.
Atlasman
2 years ago |DSLR erosion is not going to happen quick—and that’s why Canon is doing everything to protect that portion of its business.
In the mirrorless world, it should be expected that the company that introduced mirrorless should be in the lead—after all the m4/3 format has far greater maturity.
It would be interesting to see data on unit sales for the past three years. Has there been any decline in DSLR unit sales?
ghj2
2 years ago |Surprised Pentax is doing so well in the SLR market.
SonyA77
2 years ago |As was I, well done Pentax, they make superb dSLRs.
Clyde
2 years ago |How much better would Sony do if their camera line could seamlessly tie into their PSP, Play Station, Vaio, and/or Android Phones? They’re missing out on a hugely marketable advantage over any competitor listed. But we can’t even get tethering, or any ability to shoot vid remotely whatsoever.
SonyA77
2 years ago |Arghhhh, don’t mention the “t” word…I can feel the vein in my temple bulging now!
Sometimes I feel like getting the Sony people into a room and giving them a right good kicking.
Ario
2 years ago |As long as Sony doesn’t introduce any lens(es) – I prefer the plastic fast fixed/ zoom lenses for price:performance ratio, I don’t think the market share will grow. There is a point where everybody got excited with Sony’s great camera (lots of my friends adding a second (NEX) camera body from CaNikon) and then started to be a little disappointed with the lens choices.
I hope the rumor is true that this year NEX system will have at least 6 lenses and also several new lenses for A-mount.
SonyA77
2 years ago |If you want compact lenses with auto-focus then yes, I can understand the disappointment with NEX. It’s why I don’t have one.
However, with focus peaking you really don’t need auto-focus. I use it on my A77 and it makes manual focus very easy.
For me it is the lack of small lenses that put me off NEX.
cafi
2 years ago |bah sony is going to sink in imagine markt… evf bah so sluggy and ugly canon pownage
SonyA77
2 years ago |Yeah, er, sure…
Klipsen
2 years ago |Uhm, the A77 is in the # 19 spot at the time of writing. It’s probably safe to assume that it’ll reach higher as and when it becomes more widely available.
gantz
2 years ago |wow canon kick sony’s b..
Wheelus
2 years ago |A77 is currently #12.
Jake
2 years ago |hey, you cannot trust BCN rankings because they do not include Yodobashi(biggest retailer in Japan), Biccamera, Kitamura,etc.
Jake
2 years ago |and Oly4/3 cameras selling well just because they are discounted by 40percent or more.
Pana GX1 price dropped by 43 percent from its introductory price in Nov.
NEX5n and 7 are not selling very well just because they are not discounted much.
after this mirroless ILC boom , Nikon is the one really lost a lot of market share not Canon.
canon is doing quite well.
also it is very interesting to see if the new Fuji XP1 sells well there.
I know a lot of people here in Japan complaining about the high price of Fuji XP1, I was also disappointed with the Fuji and as I saw it at Fuji X night event in Sinjuku , I decided to order my own NEX7 kit.
but any way, BCN is a useless site.