On 7/20/05 7:07 PM, "Herb Chong" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> they are a distant #4 or 5, depending on Olympus sales. I was referring to a database collected daily from 18 major electronics chain stores which is considered the most accurate sales trend info in Japan (it's for a private subscription by the industry but they publish the monthly summary).. It breaks down to detailed combinations of each model, such as body/lens kit, colour of body etc, so it does not simply go by N/C/P etc. In general, Canon RebelXT and Nikon D70 (and D70s) occupy the lion's share. The best selling is RebelXT black body lens kit (16.8% share) followed by D70 lens kit (12.0% share) and the list goes down with various variation of Rebel and 70D (double zoom kit and such). At 8th, EOS 20D 17-85 IS lens kit shows up. Oly E-300 shows up briefly at 3.5% share but that's the only Oly entry, but this was a bit of blip. Of non N/C DSLR, Pentax is now the 3rd (D and Ds combined) with KM Alpha7 closing in. However, this was the June data. The database now says that Nikon D50 has a strong momentum (they just entered) and Pentax DL is now about to enter. Particularly the D50's sales speed is phenomenal and it is considered a matter of time before the share of two giants, namely the RebelXT and D70, will be rapidly eroded and brought down. This database says that the largest market was always the 'entry level" one, represented by a model like Canon RebelXT etc, and it has been so for quite some time. Now a new class of market is being formed, which is one rank below this entry level, and nicknamed (in Japan) "easy" or "ready-to-use" (difficult to translate :-) model. It is intended to make the SLR closer to home including those who never even considered DSLR before, such as house wives etc. Right now, the sales of D50 is really wild and Pentax DL is following. So, the July report will probably bring down the stronghold of Canon (who of course won't sit tight, watching their market share being eroded). After all, Pentax have been patiently positioning themselves in the right market and making as much money they could, and squarely competing with C/N in the largest segment of the market. Seeing this, now KM are entering this market although a bit belated and Oly will surely come in (they should, if they were to survive). Hope Pentax will make some more money by DL and start offering the type of model the typical PDMLers would want, as they promised :-). Cheers, Ken
