Hello Takehiko, Thanks for taking the time to translate this for us. It provides some very interesting information.
Domo, Gokurosan deshita! Bruce Wednesday, February 9, 2005, 5:06:09 AM, you wrote: TU> --- Herb Chong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote： >> i reread the NIKKEI release and a couple of others. TU> <snip> TU> Here's my brief translation of the article; TU> ======================= TU> 28th Jan, Nikkei(Tokyo) TU> 2nd stage for competition with DSLR TU> P&S spread over to consumers TU> Structural changes have been taking place in the TU> domestic(Japanese) digital camera market. P&S have spread TU> over to the consumers, and every manufacturer is beginning TU> to develop/sell SLR's earnestly. Panasonic, as the first TU> runner from electric appliances manufacturers, has TU> declared its entrance to DSLR market and the price range TU> will be expected to go down to 70-80 thousand JPY from 100 TU> thousand. The digital camera market has come to the 2nd TU> stage, after Canon and Sony have won the 1st stage of P&S TU> market. TU> Pentax Corporation(Itabashi, Tokyo) is shifting its R&D TU> resources for digital cameras to DSLR. Around 70% of 300 TU> engineers dealt with P&S, and the rest for SLR, before, TU> but the corporation is putting 60% of them to DSLR TU> research and development. TU> The corporation is not doing well in the compact digi-cam TU> market, whose main stream is around JPY30 thousand, with TU> its weaker brand than that of such electronics companies TU> as Sony. The average price of Pentax digi-cams have TU> fallen down by 30% in the 1st half of fiscal 2004, and its TU> digi-cam sector seems to have gone into the red. They TU> have "lost" the 1st game, and are trying to turn the TU> tables at the 2nd match. TU> Konica Minolta Photo Imaging(Shinjuku, Tokyo) is also TU> emphasising that the main target in the 2005 R&D is DSLR. TU> At the sales front, many experts are thinking that TU> consumers used to compact digi-cams are beginning to shift TU> their equipments to DSLR's. DSLR's hold only 4% of the TU> digi-cam market on the sales number basis. However, TU> manufacturers are eager to get larger share in the TU> domestic market, in order for favourable competition in TU> the international market. TU> Lower price DSLR's are the symbol for this eagerness. TU> DSLR's used to be, at least, JPY150 thousand, but Canon in TU> September 2003 and Nikon in March 2004 introduced consumer TU> model of slightly over JPY100 thousand. Olympus and TU> Pentax followed them last autumn. Panasonic, TU> collaborating with Olympus, is expected to introduce its TU> 1st DSLR in the spring of 2006. DSLR market, as well as TU> compact digi-cam market, will be fierce battle of TU> development and sales. TU> The next step for consumer DSLR's will be the price range TU> of consumer film SLR's around JPY60-80 thousand. Canon, TU> Nikon, and Pentax are expected to introduce this price TU> range DSLR within this year. TU> This development/sales competition will be very tough. TU> Some minor manufacturer is thinking about exiting from the TU> compact digi-cam market, which is not profitable enough. TU> This trend may totally change the market share of TU> digi-cams. TU> ============================== TU> Some figures from the article TU> CIPA's forecasts for 2005 TU> (Digital camera) TU> Global sales: 72,200 thousand units(+20.8%) TU> JPN sales: 8,700 thousand units(+1.8%) TU> Int'l sales: 63,500 thousand units(+24%) TU> (Film camera) TU> Global sales: 6,400 thousand units(-36.5%) TU> Results for 2004 TU> (Digital camera) TU> Global sales: 59,765,768 units (+37.7%) TU> Int'l sales: 51,218,888 units(+46.5%) TU> JPN sales: 8,546,880 units(+1.3%) TU> *on the price basis, JPN market fell down by 0.7% TU> (Film camera) TU> Global sales: 10,080 thousand units(-38.2%) TU> SLR sales: 1,198 thousand units(-48.9%) TU> ========================= TU> Hope this helps. TU> Sincerely, TU> Takehiko Ueda TU> OSA, JPN TU> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
