Canon Plans to Roll Out Nearly 20 New Compact Digital Cameras
Thu 18 December, 2003 10:43
By Nathan Layne and Kunihiko Kichise
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Canon Inc. said on Thursday that it plans to
roll-out nearly 20 new compact digital cameras next year in an aggressive
product push aimed at grabbing one-fourth of the global market.
Canon, Japan's largest maker of office machines, is also busy jostling with
electronics giant Sony Corp. for the top share of the booming digital camera
market worldwide.
Takashi Oshiyama, head of Canon's digital imaging business group, told
Reuters in an interview that his firm's long history building cameras would
give it the upper hand against its rivals, many of which have only been
making cameras for a few years.
"We have a 67-year history making cameras and there is still lots of
technology gathered over that time stored away in the shed," Oshiyama said
at Canon's headquarters in Tokyo.
"Those companies out there that have no experience producing film cameras
have yet to create a camera that performs like a real camera should. I won't
say who that is."
Oshiyama said Canon planned to launch "about twice" as many compact digital
cameras in 2004 as the nine it rolled out this year. That would help it
achieve a market share of 25 percent, up from around 20 percent in 2003 and
15 percent last year.
He anticipates shipping "at least" 12.5 million compact digital cameras in
2004, a jump of nearly 50 percent from the 8.5 million it estimates for the
current year. Sony is targeting sales of 10 million in the year to next
March.
"No matter how big the market gets, we expect to take a share of 25
percent," Oshiyama said. "If the market grows to 50 million units, that
means 12.5 million cameras for us. At 55 million, we'll still get a 25
percent share."
Oshiyama said shipments of digital cameras by Japanese manufacturers would
total between 40 and 44 million units in 2003. That compares to last year's
25 million units, according to Japan's Camera and Imaging Products
Association (CIPA).
CIPA data excludes production by foreign firms, but is considered the
industry standard since Japanese companies command a global market share of
about 90 percent.
RAMPING UP PRODUCTION
Oshiyama's figures do not include sales of the 500,000 digital single lens
reflex (SLR) cameras that Canon estimates for this year. Canon launched two
digital SLR cameras in 2003 including the "EOS Kiss Digital" model, which
was a big hit with serious camera users at a price of around 120,000 yen
($1,117).
Oshiyama said Canon had ramped up annual production capacity to 15 million
cameras. That will eventually reach 20 million units thanks to a new digital
camera factory in Oita prefecture, southern Japan, which will begin
operations in January 2005.
He believes that China will become fertile ground for Canon and its industry
peers, helping drive the overall digital camera market to a peak of as high
as 100 million units, possibly in 2008 when Beijing will host the Olympic
Games.
"We have said the market would peak at 80 million units, but I see it going
a bit higher to near 100 million," he said. "In terms of potential, there is
no country like China with its 1.3 billion people and seven percent annual
rate of economic growth."
Canon is also banking on brisk sales of its compact digital photo printers,
which connect directly to the camera with a USB cable and enable consumers
to produce physical prints without a computer.
Oshiyama said they would ship 300,000 units in 2003, but he expects to sell
1.2 million next year.
Canon Plans to Roll Out Nearly 20 New Compact Digital Cameras Thu 18 December, 2003 10:43
By Nathan Layne and Kunihiko Kichise
Il est clair que chacune des grandes marques veut conquérir des parts de marché dans ce qu'il a de plus porteur: les APN compacts où la courbe des ventes est exponentielle.
Cette guerre commerciale va sans doute tirer les prix vers le bas, mais également accroître le rythme déjà galopant de l'obsolescence des modèles existants.
J'espère qu'elle ne freinera pas les RD concernant la taille des capteurs et le traitement du bruit dans les réflex.
Au dire des augures, à part sans doute un remplaçant du 1D (pour contrer Nikon dans le domaine du photojournalisme), il ne faut sans doute pas s'attendre à des nouveautés dans ce domaine pour 2004.
On Fri, 19 Dec 2003 07:56:31 +0100, "Rémi" <NoSpam@Wanadoo.fr> wrote:
Canon Plans to Roll Out Nearly 20 New Compact Digital Cameras
Thu 18 December, 2003 10:43
By Nathan Layne and Kunihiko Kichise
Il est clair que chacune des grandes marques veut conquérir des parts
de marché dans ce qu'il a de plus porteur: les APN compacts où la
courbe des ventes est exponentielle.
Cette guerre commerciale va sans doute tirer les prix vers le bas,
mais également accroître le rythme déjà galopant de l'obsolescence des
modèles existants.
J'espère qu'elle ne freinera pas les RD concernant la taille des
capteurs et le traitement du bruit dans les réflex.
Au dire des augures, à part sans doute un remplaçant du 1D (pour
contrer Nikon dans le domaine du photojournalisme), il ne faut sans
doute pas s'attendre à des nouveautés dans ce domaine pour 2004.
Canon Plans to Roll Out Nearly 20 New Compact Digital Cameras Thu 18 December, 2003 10:43
By Nathan Layne and Kunihiko Kichise
Il est clair que chacune des grandes marques veut conquérir des parts de marché dans ce qu'il a de plus porteur: les APN compacts où la courbe des ventes est exponentielle.
Cette guerre commerciale va sans doute tirer les prix vers le bas, mais également accroître le rythme déjà galopant de l'obsolescence des modèles existants.
J'espère qu'elle ne freinera pas les RD concernant la taille des capteurs et le traitement du bruit dans les réflex.
Au dire des augures, à part sans doute un remplaçant du 1D (pour contrer Nikon dans le domaine du photojournalisme), il ne faut sans doute pas s'attendre à des nouveautés dans ce domaine pour 2004.
