Last year Sony officially entered the drone market with the Sony Airpeak S1 ($8999 here at BHphoto). A bit more than a year after Sony announced they are exciting the market! Rumors has it sales were super low and the competition too strong.

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Sony – Notice of discontinuation of Airpeak S1 sales

Thank you for your continued patronage of Sony products.

Due to recent changes in the business environment, sales of the Airpeak S1 and related products, except for some accessories, will end at the end of March 2025. Please see below for a list of products to be discontinued and details of the end of support, including repair services after the end of sales.

Discontinued Products/Services

• Aircraft (ARS-S1)
• accessories
  • Gimbal (GBL-T3, GBL-PX1)
  • Battery charger (LBG-H1)
  • Transmitter (RCR-VH1)
  • Battery Station (LBN-H1)
  • RTK Kit (RTK-1)
  • Battery pack (LBP-HS1, HS1/10SET, LBP-HM1)
  • Propeller (PPL1785)
• Related Applications and Services
  • Airpeak Base
  • Airpeak Flight
  • Airpeak Protect Plan
  • Airpeak Plus

*These products are sold at Airpeak dealers. Please contact your local dealer for details.

Scheduled End of Life for Related Applications and Services

*1 Sales will end on March 31, 2029. *2 Sales will end on March 31, 2025.
*1*2 The planned end date of the paid services will depend on when the customer completes the service start-up procedure after purchase, but the above is the maximum period during which the services will be offered.

End of support schedule

Contact for this matter

Business product consultation desk TEL: 0120-788-333
*If you cannot use the toll-free number on a mobile phone or some IP phones, please call 050-3754-9550.
Reception hours: 9:00 to 18:00 (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays, and our company holidays)

Image translation via PetaPixel. Sony is totally absent here.

The Japanese organization BCN shared new insights on the Japanese fixed lens camera market. Digicameinfo summed up the most interesting points:

• Casio has left the compact camera market, Nikon has stopped development, and Sony and Fujifilm have significantly scaled back their lineups. Some may fear that the category itself will disappear as it is pushed aside by smartphones. The bottom line is that it is not dead at all. Compact cameras still account for more than 60% of camera sales. Although their sales value composition ratio is small, ranging from the upper 20% to lower 30%, a certain level of sales continues.
• The average price is also rising, just like with interchangeable lens cameras. In particular, the increase in the proportion of relatively high-priced models over 50,000 yen stands out. As of September 2021, this was only 6.8% of the total number of units sold, but this September it had risen to 33.2%. This is thought to be largely due to the impact of inflation, but at the same time, it is also highly likely that there are an increasing number of users who want better products even if they are a little more expensive.
• Year-on-year sales of interchangeable lens cameras fell significantly in both unit volume and value. Although the decline narrowed in October, sales remain below the previous year’s level. Compact cameras are also showing a slowdown, with unit sales declining slightly in September and October. However, sales value remained above the previous year, with October sales value increasing by double digits to 115.3%. With prices of mirrorless cameras rising, it could be said that even relatively high-priced compact cameras are now looking cheap.
• The compact camera market structure has changed significantly in the past few years. Canon is by far the top five in terms of sales volume in September, with a large share of 31.1%, backed by the PowerShot and IXY series. Meanwhile, Fujifilm, in second place, took a 13.4% share, largely due to the huge sales of its instax mini Evo. Kodak and Kenko Tokina, in third and fourth place, moved into the “vacant lot” left by major manufacturers. They are the main players who have expanded their market share by leveraging their good cost performance, and have greatly changed the market. And Ricoh Imaging, with its GR series, has made it into the top five with a modest single-digit share. The GR brand, which has been around since the film era, still has many die-hard fans.

I wonder if 2025 will be the year where Sony finally revives their RX camera series. What do you think…is this going to happen or not?

Venus Optics just announced the new 12-24mm f/5.6 Shift APS-C lens you can buy for $699 on the Venus Optics Global Store.

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