The Imaging Business report from Sony.
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Canon (Info on Yahoo), Nikon (Info on Engadget) and Sony (Info on CNN) did cut their profit outlook. The full Sony PDF report can be donwnloaded here: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/13q2_sony.pdf. While Canon and Nikon stated that the system camera market (DSLR+mirrorless) will stagnate or shrink in 2014 Sony’s main issue is the dramatically disappearing compact camera business. That’s why they came up with the Sony QX system but if that will work out for Sony has yet to be seen. The outlook is still negative:
>Imaging Products & Solutions Outlook:
Overall segment sales are expected to be below the August forecast primarily due to a downward revision in the annual unit sales forecast of video cameras and digital cameras. Operating income is expected to be significantly below the August forecast, primarily due to the negative impact of the above-mentioned decrease in sales. Year-on-year, sales are expected to be essentially flat and operating income is expected to increase significantly.
There is no mention in Sony’s report about the DSLR and Mirrorless sales outlook. Would have been interesting to see what Sony expects from the A7-A7r sales.
30 Responses
Decline of compacts are inevitable, Sony’s loss in cameras was actually pretty flat this quarter, most of the losses can be attributed to Sony Pictures with box office bombs like After Earth and White House Down
The shift from compact cameras to smartphones will decrease sales in Sony imaging division, but more sensors will be sold in smartphones, another division of Sony. What about all the camera sensors Sony sells to other companys like Nikon or Apple (iPhone)? Are they part of the digital imaging division or elsewhere?
No, they are not part digital imaging division. That’s a different division (Devices). That division has 122 million (net profit).
Financial services was most profitable (400 million)
Home entertainment lost 123 million amd Sony Pictures lost 123 million.
Imagine division didn’t lose much (24 million)
Mobile Games might make a lot of money next year after PS4 release
I actually like the idea of an Imagine Division.
In most companies, Finacial services delivers the most profit.
Really, really sad.
They are going to sell HEAPS of the A7/A7r…
I knew it! As soon as Sony announced their profit outlook downgrade, Canikon had to come out with a Sony-profit-outlook-downgrade killer. Unfortunately for Canikon, their sony-profit-outlook-downgrade killer is not a true competitor to the Sony. I WILL NOT be reading their financial statements.
+1 Ha!!
🙁
Purely anecdotal evidence, but here in Finland the A7-series seems to be getting the kind of interest Sony could only dream about with earlier cameras. One retailer that was lucky to sell half a dozen A99’s has dozens of preorders for the new series (and quite a bit more of the A7r versus A7). Interest in local camera forums has been pretty intense. Now if only Sony doesn’t screw this up somehow, they’ll be well on their way 🙂 Also probably wouldn’t hurt to advertise even a little bit, never seen a Sony camera ad here.
It’s all about the lenses now. Image quality of A7r seems to be really impressive, and the price is hot. But lenses will break their neck if they don’t put the pedal to the metal very soon.
Most photographers are very brand loyal (no, we -readers of SAR- are not, that’s why we’re here!). Don’t expect a Canon or Nikon lover to step over to Sony, unless he can stay with his brand in the mean time. In that respect the A7(r) (or the Nex-line) is a brilliant concept: every Canon or Nikon photographer can buy a Sony body, get better quality at a lower price than with his own brand and still state he shoots with that famous Canon or Nikkor glass. And eventually, when he finds out that there are even better options for his Sony body (the Zeiss lenses) he will step over. Really brilliant, I wish I’d invented the concept 🙂
Or if he will find a better body from Canon/Nikon – he will discard Sony and move back 100% to Ca/Nikon.
Not to mention people who move back from Sony to Nikon / Canon. (6D, D600 and now DF are 3 huge waves of people moving from Sony to both: Canon and Nikon).
Sorry to inform you, but this transfer of people works in two ways. And as far as I see – Canon and Nikon come out with upper hand right now. People who invest in E-mount do it mostly for a secondary system. From all of the E-mount photographers I know of there isn’t a single one who would shoot only with NEXes. They always got a DSLR (yes – even APS-C) for their primary body. And reasons for that go beyond just lenses.
There doesn’t seem to be a better body from Canon or Nikon, IQ compared to price. Yet. Do you expect a small form FF camera with an interesting price and stunning IQ coming from those two giants in the near future? I don’t.
And the interesting part still remains: N-lovers won’t step over to C, C-lovers won’t step over to N, in case they’ve got enormous amounts of very expensive glass. They WILL buy an relatively cheap extra Sony body, I’m sure, but we’ll see about that. Of course Sonyans will step over if they suddenly need a fast press photographers camera with lots of professional support or something like that.
Btw. I noticed the prices of FE lenses are really cheap in japan. Its actually 530EUR for the 3028 and 620EUR for the 5518. Gear has always been cheaper in Japan but for the 5518 its almost half the European price which is quite ridiculous, even considering tax.
3028=3528
They will earn more from A7(r) and the new lenses than expected. At least they sell more than they thought they should built! My preorder (A7r and the 55/1.8) promised for 19 November was postponed to End of January! 🙁
Jan, which continent have You preordered Your A7R? I preordered LA-EA3 from Japan and A7R from Europe, I hope there would be factory release at promised day.
that was ordered in Europe (GER), both together. I hope they manage to deliver the cam without the lens, but they announced to deliver both together in January, grrr
The A7R (or A7), you can still order today and expect on the 19th Nov (use one of SAR links). It is a different story (from the beginning) on the 55/1.8. That would only show up next year.
New info about the A-mount cameras:
“At the press screening told Yoshiyuki Nogama that a video-oriented SLR with A-mount is going on. It will compete with the Canon EOS 5D Mark III will have Ultra HD (4K). We guess that it is a further development of the Sony A99.
The Sony boss also told that Sony later comes with a really fast small picture camera [A-mount, I suppose he means] for action photography.” (via Google translate)
http://www.fotosidan.se/cldoc/sony-a7-och-a7r-tva-fullformatare.htm (a Swedish magazine)
“Towards the end of 2015, the FE series include fifteen lenses, after the first five, a macro lens and a bright lens with fixed focal length, both constructed by Zeiss. Sony brings out a G-labeled macro lens.
Sony also comes with an updated version of the 70-200mm f/2.8 G SSM with faster autofocus. That lens is an A-mount lens as well as its predecessor. the price is set at 26,000 Swedish Crowns [about 2900 euro].” (via Google translate)
http://www.fotosidan.se/cldoc/sony-a7-och-a7r-tva-fullformatare.htm (a Swedish magazine)
They should make E to A adapter to migrate from E to A cameras Easy with lenses.
Not sanely possible because of the register distances – it would not give you a full image circle at anything like the focal distance you would expect.
Wouldn’t it act like a macro tube? The focus distance would be very close.
FYI: Sony A7 sales won’t affect overall financial condition of Sony in any measurable way. Higher-end cameras sell in too small numbers to do much of a change. It’s cameras like A58 or NEX3 that create most of profits.
when you say “too small numbers”, what numbers are we talking about here for this kind of (full frame) cameras? do you know any publications of # of cameras sold (also for other brands)?
He’s right on price the A7 isn’t a mass market product. That doesn’t mean it won’t sell ok to fairly well, just the volume of sales (and potential growth long term) is lower down the food chain.
That’s why Sony are going to get hammered this Christmas, with 2 dated APS-C 24mp SLT models, the A99 is too expensive (ditto A7), and the A58 is quite a weak entry model for Sony.
By delaying the updated Alpha A mount line up, Sony are ensuring they get wiped out by rivals.
They have lost 24 million dollars so far in 2013! That’s just in cameras and video equipment! All of the camera companies are in danger of being destroyed by Apple and Samsung! You can’t lose money forever before the CEO pulls the plug.
I checked the (Finnish) Sony website today. They have 21 different models just in compact cameras. Lots of overlapping. Why? 10 would be more than enough.
Feature consistency
Even the most basic feature phones have Wi-Fi these days. Each Sony’s dedicated camera over $300 should have Wi-Fi and GPS build-in. Where is high density screens?
Bundled software
Sony software sucks. Always. Sony should make a deal with Adobe and bundle Lightroom with their cameras instead, like Leica has done.
Firmware updates
Apple has, again, shown the way here. iOS 7 and OS X were free updates to all customers. Provide firmware updates to all cameras that are capable of running them. Do it at least once in a year and people value your products more and – surprise – spend more.
Camera software features
Don’t limit software features on lower end camera models. Seriously, this is plain stupid. Instead, add value and create consistency in your lineup. Make the differences in hardware.
And the list goes on and on…