USA-today: Sony could benefit from shortages of Canon, Nikon SLRs.

Mike Worswick (president of the Photographic Research Organization) said at USA TODAY that with the shortages in cameras, due to the crisis, “The opportunity for Sony, Olympus and even Samsung to grow a little market share in the next few months is clearly out there“. At a time when many Canon SLRs are hard to find, due to production issues, the Sony models are not only in amply supply, but discounted to sell with special promotions.

Thom Hogan commented that statement on his website: “USAToday speculates that the shortage of Canon and Nikon cameras caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami will benefit Sony’s DSLR market share. Maybe, but not for any of the reasons USAToday suggests. First, Canon has already announced that it doesn’t expect any drop in DSLR sales, so USAToday would essentially be saying the Sony share increases would come at the expense of Nikon. That’s probably true, but it isn’t really the earthquake and tsunami that is the root cause here.“..:”Sony’s inventory problems had been somewhat the opposite of Nikon’s: most items have been in plentiful stock, partly because they’re not as efficient as Nikon in getting a customer in a store asking for something. So, yes, USAToday’s basic premise is correct: if sales shift away from Nikon, Sony should gain.”

My two cent on that: I learned via my sources that Sony has quite a problem with the CMOS sensor production. I have my doubts that what Mike Worswick is telling us is true.

P.S.: The deals we are talking about are only running in US (didn’t find any deals in european countries:
-$50 on the A580 at Amazon, Adorama, B&H and J&R.
-$50 on the A55 at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
-$50 on the A33 at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
-$50 on the NEX-5 at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
-$50 on the NEX-3 at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.