Pea-n-Me
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August 8, 2010
DSLR & Mirrorless 2010 Market Share (Japan) - Nikon,Canon vs the rest
Every year or so, I sit down in front of my computer, reading DSLR market share reports. I want to understand more about where the photography market is going for. Who are the gainers in each year, and what should we expect from the upcoming years from leading camera manufacturer vendors.
We can see that when a new 'mirrorless' niche of cameras bursts into the market, many leading camera manufacturers strive to get a share in the uprising demand. Those cameras are also known as EVIL (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens). As for August 2010 and according to GfK figures, Olympus is leading with 70% market share in the 'mirrorless' camera in Australia. Olympus is a company that keeps releasing new innovations every year. Furthermore, it was the first to figure out the consumer photography market demands Olympus released the PEN series' cameras (E-P1, E-P2 & E-PL1) and has shown, that compact 'mirroless' cameras can produce very high quality images, allowing photographers to control shallow depth of field (what was not impossible with smaller sensors) and let consumers enjoy a pocket camera that can literally fit into your pocket, and all this without scarifying image quality. Olympus has done that with its Micro Four Thirds system.
The Micro Four Thirds system was developed by Olympus and Panasonic and announced on August 5, 2008. After that Panasonic has joined the Micro Four Thirds celebration with the Lumix G1. However, Sony has been given attention to the market behavior, and has decided to come up with its own mirrorless NEX cameras. Sony had introduced the NEX-3 and NEX-5 compact EVIL cameras. After that we can expect that Nikon and Canon will follow the trend and release their own version for mirrorless cameras, probably at Photokina show or up to the end of the fourth quarter of 2010.
SLR mirrorless and digital SLR cameras, Japan Market Share (H1 2010)
In the DSLR market in Japan, Nikon has grabbed the #1 place in market share (34.0%) from Canon (31.4%) according to BCN measures for the first half of 2010. Panasonic (10.9%) follows Nikon at the 3rd place, With a strong market share that most of it is due to their smart achievements and innovation in the mirrorless segment. Pentax (7.8%, Pentax brand HOYA, see Pentax 2008 market share info) is at the 4th place, Followed by Olympus (7.7%) and Sony (7.5%). Canon lost 7.7% market share in Japan, and it seems that all the other companies are biting some market share from Canon. Canon is a company which has dominated the DSLR market share in Japan until this year. Finding a niche market is always a good strategy. Because Olympus, Panasonic and Sony have done this first, it gave them marginally better market share growth. They can enjoy it at least until Canon and Nikon will come out with their own mirroless cameras.
Top interchangeable lens digital cameras share sales (H1 2010)
Nikon D90
1st place in Japan
In Japan, the Nikon D90 is leading the table of the top selling interchangeable lens digital cameras (13.0%), Cannon EOS Kiss X3 (11.5%), Nikon D5000 (10.6%), Canon EOS Kiss X4 (9.7%), Nikon D3000 (7.9%), Pentax K-x (6.3%), Panasonic LUMIX GF1 (6.1%), Olympus PEN Lite E-PL1 (4.6%), Canon EOS 7D (3.5%) and ending the top 10 is the Canon EOS Kiss X2 (3.1%). You can clearly see the that Canon and Nikon are dominating the top 10 DSLR/Mirroless market share. Even though that Canon and Nikon haven't come up with their own mirroless digital cameras, they still are the market leaders. What you can also see, is that the mirror-less cameras are becoming more favorable to some DSLR cameras. Mirrorles's cameras start to grab more market shares as new models appear.
Sony is at the 12th place with the Sony NEX-5 (2.0%), Panasonic LUMIX G1 (2.7%) at the 11th position, and you can see down the table the Olympus PEN E-P1, E-P1 and Panasonic LUMIX G2 at the bottom of the top 20 share sales for January-June 2010. It seems that the demand for compact interchangeable lens' digital cameras is getting more and more dominant. In the upcoming years, mirror-less cameras will certainly bite more market shares from the DSLR segment. In the near future, we will probably see more vendors joining this celebration and create their own series of mirror-less cameras
Nikon D90 - 13.0%
Canon EOS Kiss X3 (500D) - 11.5%
Nikon D5000 - 10.6%
Canon EOS Kiss X4 (550D) - 9.7%
Nikon D3000 - 7.9%
Pentax K-x - 6.3%
Panasonic LUMIX GF1 - 6.1%
Olympus PEN E-PL1 - 4.6%
Canon EOD 7D - 3.5%
Canon EOS Kiss X2 (450D) - 3.1%
Panasonic LUMIX G1 - 2.7%
Sony NEX-5 - 2.0%
Canon EOS 5D Mark II - 1.8%
Canon EOS 50D - 1.7%
Sony α550 - 1.5%
Sony α330 - 1.4%
Olympus PEN E-P2 - 1.3%
Panasonic LUMIX G2 - 1.3%
Nikon D300s - 1.3%
Olympus PEN E-P1 - 1.1%
source: BCNRanking.jp
Grabbing Canon and Nikon Market Share in 2010
As the top leading vendors get stronger in the DSLR market, the smaller companies' market share shrinks. It means that they'll have to lead the consumer market share if they want to survive this tough competition. Even so, it seems that the smaller vendors are doing well, by grabbing 5% market share from Canon and Nikon in 2010 (Canon & Nikon market share: 2009:75.4% vs 2010:70.4%). Now you understand why rumors websites have predicted that Canon and Nikon will probably release their own mirror-less cameras. Now of course its a fact, as both Nikon and Canon already announced that they will release their own compact-DSLR (mirror-less or not) cameras.
It seems that innovation is a crucial part of succeeding in this very competitive digital camera's market. You probably ask yourself why Canon and Nikon have waited for those cameras to start grabbing their market share, instead of releasing earlier models sooner. It is a good question, but I guess that this is how the market behaves, means that this is how large leading corporations behave. They wait until smaller companies start biting their market share, and then start developing their own solutions. It happened with Apple iPhone, the iPad and it happens with the mirror-less camera's segment.
We hear the news all over the web: Panasonic working on releasing 3D twin-lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras, Sony announcing two new Alpha lenses, 1001 Noisy Cameras website reports (rumor) that Canon is searching to buy a medium format company, maybe a new Panasonic GH2 and GF2 cameras...
Furthermore, Nikon has released it Q1 2010 financial reports, and it seems that it has been a good year for Nikon. Net sales has grown 48% and Nikon is looking with a bright vision into the future, expecting to elevate their sales and profit in the upcoming year.
Whatever the news will be, I am sure that this year will be one of the most exciting years in the digital photography category with many new DSLR cameras that will replace the 'antique' ones. Photokina, here I come...
http://www.digitalphotographywriter.com/2010/08/dslr-mirrorless-2010-market-share-japan.html
