The fall of Canon and Nikon. The raise of Sony (Bloomberg).
The latest article at Bloomberg (Click here) about tha japanese digital camera market shares describes an ongoing and somewhat unexpected revolution. According to Bloomberg: “the world’s two biggest makers of high-end cameras (Cnaon and Nikon), may be missing out on the industry’s biggest technology shift since film rolls became obsolete. The two Tokyo-based companies use mirrors in all cameras with interchangeable lenses, a technique Sony Corp. is shifting away from. As a result, Canon and Nikon’s combined share of the Japanese market has fallen by 35 percent, while Sony’s share has doubled, according to estimates at research firm BCN Inc.”
Ryosuke Katsura (Mizuho Securities Equity Research analyst) wrote last year that the mirrorless technology: “may be the biggest “paradigm shift” in the SLR industry in six decades”
In general those are the interesting news for Sony (and generally about camers):
– Sony’s share in the worldwide SLR market rised to about 15 percent in the year ended March 31 from 10 percent a year earlier.
– Mirrorless cameras accounted for 40.5 percent of SLR sales in July (in Japan), surging from 5 percent in early 2009, according to BCN.
– Globally, sales of mirrorless cameras surged fivefold to 2.1 million units in 2010, and their share of the overall SLR market may climb to 23 percent in 2011 from 16 percent, according to Macquarie Group Ltd. estimates last month.
My take on that: It is interesting to see that Sony is pushing the A77 with a lot of Marketing, but the most preordered cameras in USA are the NEX-7 and NEX-5n. Those are the only cameras that are constantly in the top 20 of the Amazon sales (Click here to see the rankings). I know from talks with my sources that Sony didn’t expect such a huge success for their NEX system. And I cannot imagine how much money they would make now if they would be fast enough to make decent NEX lenses! Hurry up Sony, we need pancakes, more Zeiss lenses, fast lenses and some video optimized lens! I am sure Canon will soon announce a strong mirrorless system and Sony have to be aware of that. At the moment things look good for Sony, but it’s time to “believe” in the NEX system and put a lot of effort into products development!
P.S.: If you ask me, Nikon’s mirrorless system will not be a serious NEX competitor (it uses a to small 2,7x crop sensor).
NEX Preorders (Click on the shop name and you will be directly land on the product page!):
NEX-5n:
Sonystore US, Amazon US, Adorama, Sonystore Canada, SonyStore DE, SonyStore FR, SonyStore IT, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Digitalrev and [shoplink 8452 ebay]eBay[/shoplink].
NEX-7 body only:
Sonystore US, Amazon US, Adorama, Sonystore Canada and in Europe at Jessops and Computeruniverse.
NEX-7 with 18-55mm kit lens:
Sonystore US, Amazon US, Adorama, Sonystore Canada and in Europe at Jessops.
Zeiss 24mm f/1.8:
Sonystore US, Amazon US, Adorama, Sonystore Canada.
50mm f/1.8:
Sonystore US, Adorama.