Canon camera sales decline 22%

[Chris_Brown]

Although Canon's camera sales declined 22% from this time last year, the company posts a profit. Read the full article here.

FTA:

Camera sales, however, fell by 22 percent year-on-year in the quarter, as the world's biggest camera maker struggled with the prevalence of high-quality smartphone cameras and a saturation in the high-end, single-lens-reflex camera market.

Any idea how other companies a faring?

[pcg]

Everyone except Leica lost money last year.

[BernardLanguillier]

Everyone except Leica lost money last year.

Care to share your information source?

Last time I checked Nikon was profitable.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Telecaster]

If I recall correctly, all the major camera makers have been seeing year-on-year sales declines. Except maybe Leica, which released the M240 last year. Profitability is a different thing. You can be like Fuji, breaking even at best (and more likely taking a loss) in its photo division and yet hardly noticing it in terms of overall performance. Or you can be like Nikon or Leica, which have to make money on cameras & lenses to stay profitable. My impression is that Canon, Olympus, Panasonic & Ricoh are in-between these two extremes. Their photo divisions are important to overall performance but not by themselves determinative.

But I'm sure there are folks here who have the hard numbers, at least to the extent they're known.   

-Dave-

[Keith Reeder]

Last time I checked Nikon was profitable.

Losing money and still being profitable are not mutually exclusive: Canon's still profitable, just somewhat less profitable than previously.

[BJL]

Although Canon's camera sales declined 22% from this time last year, the company posts a profit. Read the full article here.

FTA:
Any idea how other companies a faring?

Everyone except Leica lost money last year.

Care to share your information source?

Last time I checked Nikon was profitable.

Photographic equipment is only small part of Canon's highly diversified business, and only about half of Nikon's, so overall corporate profitability does not tell us how their photographic divisions are going.  Panasonic and Olympus are two other examples of companies that reported profits for the most recent year despite losses for their photographic divisions, and Sony is also involved in a broader scramble of Japanese companies to reduce their dependence on increasingly unprofitable consumer products like cameras.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Losing money and still being profitable are not mutually exclusive...

Oh, yes they are. You are either losing money or you are making money (being profitable). It is either or. Like pregnancy.

What you probably had in mind is that while you might be losing SALES (i.e. selling less than before), you could still be profitable, and that is correct. Theoretically, you could be even more profitable with declining sales, if you cut your expenses simultaneously and disproportionally.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

I know the manufacturer's shares I'd opt for.

Do tell! 

[Petrus]

Theoretically, you could be even more profitable with declining sales, if you cut your expenses simultaneously and disproportionally.

Oh yes, I know! The company I work for has cut costs, kicked out dozens of people, squeezes out more from the remaining, sales are declining and still every year the profits are bigger than ever before! That is called good business strategy…

In the publishing business that can not go on indefinitely, of course.

[BernardLanguillier]

Oh yes, I know! The company I work for has cut costs, kicked out dozens of people, squeezes out more from the remaining, sales are declining and still every year the profits are bigger than ever before! That is called good business strategy…

Your comment was probably tongue in cheek, but I would call that a very short sighted business strategy.

The focus on bottom line has made the days of SAP for years... but once everyone has cut the costs and optimized operations you are left with a suicidal price war.

The only winning business strategy is to focus on top line, which results from innovation and differentiation.

In my view, the only 2 camera companies clearly doing this these days are Sony and Sigma. Olympus and Fuji are showing encouraging signs too. All the other guys are more or less sleep walking.

Yes, the MTF chart of the new Nikon 400mm f2.8 at f2.8 is the best ever seen in a lens designed by humans and the lens is an amazing 816gr lighter than its predecessor while selling at roughly the same list price in Yen. Great, that is going to make 2,432 folks happy worldwide!

Cheers,
Bernard

[Chris_Brown]

Sony makes a great sensor, and even though they are very diversified, they are struggling for a profit. From Financial Times yesterday:

Sony once again gave investors cause for dismay after the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said it expected to remain unprofitable next year as it counted the cost of exiting lossmaking businesses.

After several profit warnings, it reported a net loss of Y125bn ($1.3bn) for the year to March, a loss it predicts will shrink to Y50bn in the 2015 fiscal year.

"We are in a very severe situation," said Kenichiro Yoshida, chef financial officer amid a sombre results presentation in Tokyo on Wednesday. "I deeply regret [having] to report we did not meet the expectations of our stakeholders."

[BJL]

The only winning business strategy is to focus on top line, which results from innovation and differentiation.
... the new Nikon 400mm f2.8 at f2.8 ... is going to make 2,432 folks happy worldwide!

You can't accuse Nikon of ignoring "top line" with this lens at least!  I wonder which recent top line product will produce more revenue: this lens, or Sony's 44x33mm sensor which is also destined for sales in the thousands to the low tens of thousands, I would estimate.

[BernardLanguillier]

You can't accuse Nikon of ignoring "top line" with this lens at least!  I wonder which recent top line product will produce more revenue: this lens, or Sony's 44x33mm sensor which is also destined for sales in the thousands to the low tens of thousands, I would estimate.

I agree. I didn't have the MF sensor in mind, more the a7x, RX100I->III,...

The 400f2.8 is clearly top line focused, it had to be done and is most certainly the best super tele ever designed, but its significance is low in terms if business impact.

It is an amazingly well executed me 2 product including some interesting optical innovations, but it will not change a thing for Nikon's future in the marketplace.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Keith Reeder]

Oh, yes they are. You are either losing money or you are making money (being profitable). It is either or. Like pregnancy.

Oh, rubbish.

If I made £600 million profit last year, but "only" £500 million profit this year, I've lost money - but I'm still profitable.

Do you always have to be such a contrarian?

[amolitor]

The trouble here is that the phrase 'losing money' is not well defined. That said, I don't think it generally stretches far enough to cover 'declining profits'.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Keith, when in a hole, stop digging.

[Justinr]

If I recall correctly, all the major camera makers have been seeing year-on-year sales declines. Except maybe Leica, which released the M240 last year. Profitability is a different thing. You can be like Fuji, breaking even at best (and more likely taking a loss) in its photo division and yet hardly noticing it in terms of overall performance. Or you can be like Nikon or Leica, which have to make money on cameras & lenses to stay profitable. My impression is that Canon, Olympus, Panasonic & Ricoh are in-between these two extremes. Their photo divisions are important to overall performance but not by themselves determinative.

But I'm sure there are folks here who have the hard numbers, at least to the extent they're known.  

-Dave-

In which case I fear that Nikon should start looking over their shoulder for I've just added a Sigma to my rather meagre collection of Nikon fit lenses and err... I think its the best of them! Certainly no worse although I am not comparing equivalents.

Do I now get banned from this parish?  

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

...If I made £600 million profit last year, but "only" £500 million profit this year, I've lost money...

If so, then:

If I had £600 million loss last year, but "only" £500 million loss this year, I've made money? In other words, I didn't lose £1.1 billion, I made £100 million?

If so, forget about the crisis in the photographic industry, there is a brighter career waiting for you in the City's accounting or PR departments.