Camera-maker giants like Canon Inc and Nikon Corp currently finds it difficult to sell cameras. The data on the global market showed that by now, smartphones command a 13-to-1 lead in terms of shipments. This further signified the looming fall of the camera industry.
Tokyo's Camera & Imaging Products Association said that the worldwide shipments for camera slumped 29% to JPY434 billion during 2013's first five months. On a July 16 report, Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co.'s analyst, Masahiro Ono, stated that the camera shipments would fall by 30%. He added that the total shipments would most likely be 68.6 million units, down from 2012's 98.1 million units. On the other hand, TrendForce stated in its July 23 report that shipments for smartphones would increase around 32% to 928 million units.
"The market worries that there may be a negative impact on SLR cameras from smartphone cameras," JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s analyst in Tokyo, Hisashi Moriyama, said. Canon's operating income forecast "reaffirmed there's a part that Canon can't make up with its own efforts in its camera business."
Moreover, Nikon, the world's second biggest camera-maker, would just try to tap the boom in the smartphone industry. Nikon's President Makoto Kimura said that the company's results would be "a little short of its target."
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