The 2018 Japan BCN camera rankings are in, and they show that (surprise, surprise) Canon is still veritably dominating the DSLR space with 61.1% marketshare, only a slight drop from its previous 63.3% share. More impressive is Canon’s performance in the mirrorless category where Canon took the number 2 position, hitting 21.3% versus Sony’s 20.2%. Olympus beat both to take top slot in mirrorless at 27.7%, though, a small increase over its previous 26.8% marketshare.
According to BCN, Canon also topped the “digital camera with integrated lens” category, holding 27.9% of marketshare over Nikon’s 25.5% and Casio’s 17.2%. The BCN rankings also look at action cameras, which saw GoPro take top slot with 67.2% marketshare (not that this has helped the company’s outlook lately…), as well as digital video cameras, which has Panasonic on top with a 42% marketshare.
Editor’s Note: These numbers represent the Japan camera market, using about 50% of the sales data out of Japan. While Japanese market numbers are typically a good indicator of worldwide market, mirrorless numbers are often very different in the Asian market, where the technology caught on much faster than in Europe and the Americas.
When looking at previous figures, the rankings show Nikon growing in DSLR sales while Canon and Ricoh both saw decreases. Olympus, Canon, and Sony all experienced growth in the mirrorless category, while Canon and Nikon both experienced growth in the integrated lens digital camera market.
Notably, Canon continues to show strong growth in Japan’s mirrorless market despite Sony’s recovery from the disruption caused by the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake.
That earthquake had impacted Sony’s nearby image sensors facility, which supplied sensors for both Nikon and Olympus, among others. In its early 2017 fiscal quarterly results, Olympus had noted that the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake had a negative impact on its Imaging Business sales. Likewise, Nikon had revealed its own Imaging Products Business impact during the same time, resulting in downwardly revised forecasts.
However, despite Sony’s facility restoring operations in the many months since the earthquake, Canon is still outpacing Sony in the mirrorless segment.
Though Nikon saw DSLR marketshare growth in 2017, whereas Canon saw a slight decrease, the latter company still trounces its closest competitor at 61.1% versus Nikon’s 34.4%. Whether Canon’s biggest competitors will see any significant 2018 gains on the company in their respective categories is anyone’s guess.
Source: dpreview.com
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