First my apologies if this appears twice; my first effort seems to have vanished.
Canon and Sony had both announced very disappointing sales of "snapshot" cameras: at best, up in "emerging markets" enough to offset declines in developed countries (worse that that for Sony). Canon printers are going the same way.
The standard interpretation is that mobile phones are replacing snapshot cameras, but pure mobile phones are doing even worse (ask Nokia, Ericsson, Palm, Motorola, and RIM). The replacements are called "smart phones" but they are no more phones than they are cameras: these are just two of multiple functions, justifying far less than half the price of such devices, because increasingly, people are not willing to make room in their pockets and purses for a device that does only one thing. Ditto for dedicated portable music players, game players, PDA's, and even watches. Even printers are suffering in part because no many snapshots are viewed only on-screen, and often only on the small screen of a mobile device.
The formerly leading mobile phone companies are being decimated by outsiders like Apple, Google and Samsung, with Microsoft and Sony making efforts too. Does a similar fate await camera makers who do not develop more integrated products for the consumer market? Already, Konica-Minolta, Olympus and Pentax have suffered to various degrees while Sony, Panasonic and Samsung move in; will Canon and Nikon have to make major changes too? I suspect that retreating to the high ground of DSLR's and other interchangeable lens cameras could be a move in the direction of Leica: survival with prestige and even profit margins intact, but also with a major down-sizing.
P. S. [Added February 1] Both Canon and Sony have announced the replacement of their CEO's in the days after their poor results news. This might have little to do with digicam sales in particular, but the technological playing field does seem to moving under these giants.
