The sluggish worldwide economy has led to losses in the most recent fiscal year for a pair of companies that are among the world's leaders in manufacturing digital cameras.
Casio recently reported a loss of 23.15 billion yen (about $242 million) in the 2009 fiscal year (that ended March 31) as sales dropped 16.9% from the previous fiscal year. Casio had a 12.19 billion yen profit in fiscal 2008.
Olympus recently reported a loss of 114.8 billion yen (about $1.2 billion) in fiscal 2009 (also ending March 31).
At the same time as they announced the fiscal year losses, both Casio and Olympus released forecasts that they will bounce back with profitable numbers in fiscal 2010. Let's hope they're correct, as such a bounce back probably means a better worldwide economic situation over the next several months.
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Canon Inc. profit has been affected by the bad economic situation worldwide as well.
The company net profit was 17.7 billion yen in Q1 (Jan – Mar 2009). It falls about 83% from 106.6 billion yen last year. However, Canon reports that it sold more DSLR cameras comparing to a year earlier.
This may be a signal showing that consumer tends to jump from the point and shoot area to the DSLR area.
It’s a basic business truth that when you flood the market with a certain product, a saturation point occurs. Most camera companies have copied and upstaged each other for the last three years putting out new products every six months; for instance, Nikon. Four months after the D60, the D70 arrived. The D70 was changed to the D70S in four months. The D80, 300 and now the D5000 have been announced at similiar periods. If companies gave the customers a chance to learn how to use present equipment, perhaps their business would be permanent. Yep, I know all about accelerating technology and “keepin’up” Perhaps the tipping point has been reached and lower incomes are resulting in users not chasing the perfect picture. My club alone has about 50 lenses which are not useable on the new frames. Like GM, I offer my good wishes.