Sant Claus helps Nikon???

[yoshi]

This is a tentative dSLR market share report from BCN ranking site. As usual about Japanese market.

When I compare this (the first chart) one with a-year-old one (the second chart), I wonder why Nikon is strong in December.

The first chart shows weekly dSLR market share between July03 to Dec. 04, this year. You will see, Nikon is the leading brand now (well, to be more cautious/accurate, only for the first week of Dec. at the moment)

D80 and D40 contributed largely to this, although not shown in the chart.

The second chart is the one I posted nearly a year ago. This shows monthly market share by major brands for the full year of 2005, from Jan. to Dec.
You will see here Nikon was market leader in Jan and Dec. Chiristmas and New Year buyers prefer Nikon to others? (D200 contributed largely last year. It's still selling well even after one year.)

During the past one year KM brand disappeared and Sony joined. I wonder what change we will see in the next one year.

yoshi

p.s. first chart:

red=Nikon, dark blue=Canon, dark yellow=Pentax, light blue=Sony, purple=Oly

- The decline of Pentax from Nov.20 to Dec.4 is simply due to no K10D's available to sell. All of them were sold out! This is the one of the areas Pentax needs more investment. i.e. production capacity! Will Hoya help?

- Oly was number one for the week of July17.

- The best selling model is however always Canon Kiss Digital X (400D/Rebel Xt) - not shown in the attached chart.

The second chart:
dark blue=Nikon, green=Canon, purple=Olympus, blue=Pentax, red=KonicaMinolta


original URL: (in japanse) http://bcnranking.jp/flash/09-00011835.html

[Ian]

Re: Sant Claus helps Nikon

This is a tentative dSLR market share report from BCN ranking site. As usual about Japanese market.

When I compare this (the first chart) one with a-year-old one (the second chart), I wonder why Nikon is strong in December.

The first chart shows weekly dSLR market share between July03 to Dec. 04, this year. You will see, Nikon is the leading brand now (well, to be more cautious/accurate, only for the first week of Dec. at the moment)

D80 and D40 contributed largely to this, although not shown in the chart.

The second chart is the one I posted nearly a year ago. This shows monthly market share by major brands for the full year of 2005, from Jan. to Dec.
You will see here Nikon was market leader in Jan and Dec. Chiristmas and New Year buyers prefer Nikon to others? (D200 contributed largely last year. It's still selling well even after one year.)

During the past one year KM brand disappeared and Sony joined. I wonder what change we will see in the next one year.

yoshi

p.s. first chart:

red=Nikon, dark blue=Canon, dark yellow=Pentax, light blue=Sony, purple=Oly

- The decline of Pentax from Nov.20 to Dec.4 is simply due to no K10D's available to sell. All of them were sold out! This is the one of the areas Pentax needs more investment. i.e. production capacity! Will Hoya help?

- Oly was number one for the week of July17.

- The best selling model is however always Canon Kiss Digital X (400D/Rebel Xt) - not shown in the attached chart.

The second chart:
dark blue=Nikon, green=Canon, purple=Olympus, blue=Pentax, red=KonicaMinolta


original URL: (in japanse) http://bcnranking.jp/flash/09-00011835.html

Very interesting, Yoshi. Thanks for this.

Nikon is obviously doing well with the D80 and D200. How has the D40 been received in Japan?

Ian

[yoshi]

Re: Santa Claus helps Nikon

Hi Ian, the weekly sales for the period of Dec.4-10th are;

EOS Kiss Digital X ---27.3%
D80-----------------16.3%
D40-----------------15.5%
D200----------------9.1%
A100(Sony)----------6.3%
K10D(Pentax)--------5.3%
D50-----------------4.8%
Kiss Digital New (old model)---3.3%
K100D(Pentax)-------2.9%
EOS 30D-------------2.5%

NOTE: This is just a one week result and IMHO we need to have some more weekly results to make any statistically meaningful statement - hence I said "tentatively". The chart I attached earlier covers nearly six months so it would be OK to make some comments on it.

Apart from the market share reports, we also have hot discussions about D40 at Japanese sites. I just read small fraction of them but found more negative comments at earlier stage (especially about the lens AF compatibility issue) but more favorable comments from newbies. You know they just do not have any older Nikon lenses. Or just a manual focus lens such as non-Ai for example. Some veteran photographers also buy D40 as a daily pocket(?) camera. I personally prefer a compact digicam for this purpose though.
yoshi

p.s. BCN adds their commets: three in-body IS models are now on the list.

[yoshi]

Nikon is #1 in Dec.

A newspaper, Nikkei, says Nikon is the number one in the Japanese dSLR market in Dec. with 49.8% (+14.7% from Nov.) market share, while Canon with 34.3% (down 13.2% from Nov.) is the second. They do not refer to others.

We already know Nikon is strong in Dec. so this is not surprising at all but looks to me the gap of 15.5% is rather large this time.

The top 2 have more than 84% of the market so all others have jointly only 16% - so a Guess, but a reasonable one IMHO, is that Sony seemingly failed to grasp the 10% before the end of the last year, which they declared in June.
I also imagine that there must be hot arguments inside Sony how to cope with the bitter situation. I bet a massive offence from Sony when they introduce the middle class dSLR. cannot wait for Ian's report from Florida.

Nikkei used the BCN ranking information but BCN has not yet issued the detailed info to the public atm. I expect them in two weeks.
yoshi

[Ian]

Re: Nikon is #1 in Dec.

A newspaper, Nikkei, says Nikon is the number one in the Japanese dSLR market in Dec. with 49.8% (+14.7% from Nov.) market share, while Canon with 34.3% (down 13.2% from Nov.) is the second. They do not refer to others.

We already know Nikon is strong in Dec. so this is not surprising at all but looks to me the gap of 15.5% is rather large this time.

The top 2 have more than 84% of the market so all others have jointly only 16% - so a Guess, but a reasonable one IMHO, is that Sony seemingly failed to grasp the 10% before the end of the last year, which they declared in June.
I also imagine that there must be hot arguments inside Sony how to cope with the bitter situation. I bet a massive offence from Sony when they introduce the middle class dSLR. cannot wait for Ian's report from Florida.

Nikkei used the BCN ranking information but BCN has not yet issued the detailed info to the public atm. I expect them in two weeks.
yoshi

Thanks for that Yoshi. It's getting very interesting. PMA this year moves from Orlando in Florida back to Las Vegas, Nevada, by the way. Managed to book a hotel within walking distance from the convention centre, which is very fortunate!

I'm sure Canon, Olympus, Sony and Panasonic will be launching a lot of new DSLRs this year - it's going to be a big fight among all the DSLR makers, no doubt about it.

Ian

[yoshi]

Who's #3 in 2006?

BCN announced top 3 brands for electronic products for the full calendar year 2006 and as far as our interests are concerned;

BCN award 2007 shows the ranking for the full year 2006. The same ranking for the previous year is also listed here for easier comparison.

compact digicams:
2007 (=for the sales year 2006):
#1 Canon 21.0%, #2 Casio 16.3%, #3 Sony 15.2%

2006: (for the year 2005)
#1 Canon 18.5%, #2 Casio 14.7%, #3 Panasonic 12.7%

dSLR:

2007: #1 Canon 44.6%, #2 Nikon 33.6%, #3 Pentax 9.2%
2006: #1 Canon 52.1%, #2 Nikon 29.3%, #3 Pentax 7.3%

yoshi

[yoshi]

[Ian]

Re: Where is Santa Clause now?

Thanks for this information, Yoshi.

I think both Canon and Sony are overdue for new models, especially to replace the EOS-30D. Pentax also needs a cheaper 10MP model.

Nikon is certainly to be congratulated for its performance in the last 6-9 months. And at last, Olympus fans can smile too

Ian

[yoshi]

Who are they - the entry class dSLR buyers

Again, from BCN article issued recently. Continued from previous thread but different topic.

This is a modelwise analysis of dSLR market for the month of May (in Japan). What was interesting to me was “who are the entry class buyers?” But let me start first with ranking of best seller models.

Brand Model Mega Pixels introduced in market share
Canon / Kiss Digital X / 10.1Mp / Sept., ’06 / 27.6%
Nikon / D80 / 10.2Mp / Sept., ’06 / 16.0%
Nikon / D40 / 6.1Mp / Dec., ’06 / 14.9%
Nikon / D40X / 10.2Mp / Mar. ‚07 / 13.0%
Oly / E-410 / 10.0Mp / Apr., ’07 / 5.1%
Pentax/ K10D / 10.2Mp / Oct., ’07 / 3.5%
Canon/ 30D / 8.2Mp / Mar., ’06 / 3.3%
Sony/ Alpha 100/ 10.2Mp / Jul., ’06 / 2.6%
Nikon/ D200 / 10.2Mp / May, ’06 / 2.5%
Pentax/ K100D/ 6.1Mp / Jul., ’06 / 2.4%

- In quantity terms, DSLR’s sales now occupies 8% of total digital camera sales (that is, including compact digicams) in May this year, while in June last year, 3.6%. The dSLR’ pie size grew more than twice in one year.

- 75% sales of dSLRs are with kit lens(es).
- Product features appreciated by entry class model buyers. Firstly, ease of operation (scene modes are important. – in short, do not say Av (Aperture priority mode) or Tv (shutter speed priority mode), etc. instead, landscape mode, sports mode, etc. Secondly, of course prices. The attached chart shows the change of average price of dSLR models in the past one year.
Ideally, the price should be 100K yen (around US $800 or 600 Euros) with kit lens(es) or less. – then its booming!?

So my earlier question. Who are they? – typical buyer profile of these entry class models.

BCN reports: female photographers in their 50’s to 60’s.
***********************
So it looks like the DSLR market is really growing with more new entrants into this market niche.

– well, not a surprise at all- I recall majority of my fellow members of a camera club which I hold a membership of before were female members in their 50 -60’s those days. ( The ages Japanese female people are getting quite proactive, while the counterparts are contrary.)

Now all of those female friends are 70’s or more but glad, many of them are still active in photography. What was more surprising to me at that time was that after joining the club, most of them started to take better photos than me in only 6 to 12 months. A shocking memory to me! Their senses of composition were quite nice.

[yoshi]

Re: Sant Claus helps Nikon

I do not know if or not Santa Claus is helping Nikon right now but looks like it does not matter for now-mighty Nikon.
BCN's interim report says for the first 11 months of this year, Nikon captured 43.3% while Canon 39.9%. As usual POS data at about 2300 sales outlets across Japan. BCN disclosed no further details.
yoshi