Panasonic just released the full first quarter financial results (pdf file here). The first good news is that Panasonic is writing black numbers and recovering from the crisis they had the past years (just like any other electronic company had).
There is no much info about the Digital camera Business but the news are good:
Although sales in Europe were down due to weaker sales in TVs and DSCs as well as the impact of political instability in Ukraine, sales in the other regions increased from last year.
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In the challenging businesses such as DSCs and mobile phones, profitability improved due to the impact of new products and cutbacks in products.
21 Responses
lol… with the cutdowns and stuff it´s hardy something to party about at panasonic.
If you put it like that, wait till the Olympus financials become public….
Good for Panasonic in its slow recovery! If Panasonic was an American company, the Leveraged Buyout (LBO) crowd from Wall Street would have already descended on the company to loot it of its assets and leave it as a dysfunctional corporate “zombie” with a mountain if debt. Somehow, it feels good to see Panasonic, Olympus, and Sony stay in the camera business with a commitment to weather the downturns. Let’s hope that more upscale cameras will make the commitment economically worthwhile.
Good for you panasonic. Now you just need to let the other 99% of the world know you even make cameras.
Funny I bought a Panasonic Air Conditioner a few years ago and it was great, (to my surprise). This year I needed a 2nd one and looked everywhere and learned “panasonic no longer makes air conditioners”. I loved my Gh-1-2-3, my gf1, g3, g5, lx3-5-7’s but wonder if one day Pansonic will drop em all?
Pana still makes a/c’s, they are just not exporting to the U.S. or wherever you live. In hong kong where it gets quite hot in the summer, pana is a major player (behind hitachi) in the a/c market. They also still make awesome massage chairs, rice cookers and other home/kitchen appliances.
and toothbrush and cosmetics too
Pana deserve it .
No doubt the GX7 & GM1 are truely remarkable products .
Keep this up with innovative & breakthough products .
So true. They were massively outclassed when Oly released the EM-5 and they only had the G3/G5/GX1 to show. The GF series were incredibly mediocre after the GF1. And then in less than one year they push out the GX7, GM1, GH4… Tell me which other mirrorless maker has such a coveted line-up now.
As for Oly, I truly hope they can restore some credibility to the PENs…
The other Mirrorless maker that has such a coveted line-up now is Sony.
I’m a Panny guy but did buy one Sony and am at odds on whether to buy the GH4 or A7s…or wait ?
Sony is making everybody wake up and innovate.
Ask yourself what your shooting style is, do you shoot in low light constantly? As to me, I shoot my films in controlled lights, GH4 is my choice. Once you look at 4K images, you can never go back to 1080P. Although A7s can output 4K, you wouldn’t want a recorder hung around wherever you go.
To ISO 12800 a7r and a7s are equal, with the r having more resolution. If the cluncky shutter sound is not a problem and you’re not into video, go a7r. Just my two cents.
I would choose the s because of its silent mode, which would be a blessing in theaters, but until Sony decides and shows a clear lens road-map, I won’t trust it.
Or, if you are into video and already have some good glass from Panny or Oly, go GH4 and enjoy.
Panasonic and Sony are definitely the two camera manufacturers who are advancing the game.
Sony:
RX100 series
RX10
RX1
a6000 (mostly for its great value)
A7 series
Panasonic:
GM1
FZ1000
GX7 (definitely underrated, but really seems like they nailed the ergonomics)
GH4
Olympus gets some credit for upping the general mirrorless game with the E-M1, and for bringing most of the technology down to a very good price point in the E-M10. And Fuji also gets an honourable mention for making the X-T1 such a competent camera and their very high quality lens line. But the people who are inventing what comes next? Definitely Sony and Panny. No question.
The GH2 was still the Panasonic flagship when the EM5 was released, but I brought only slight image quality improvements, average video quality and more retro industrial design bringing pretty awful ergonomics requiring a $300 add-on grip.
Panasonic was smart to weed out the deadwood of their big lineup of generic P&S cameras.
Damn who new Ukraine was a big Panasonic market lol.
A truly glorious country! It’s right up there with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
Think they have more important interests – “Tesla and Panasonic team up to build battery factory”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28594169
Ah, but the tesla is so hot it takes pictures of itself while your driving.
The biggest takeaway is how tiny a piece of their business consumer photography is.
And the sobering thought that they could turn that LOB off and barely notice it…
Beautiful achievement given the incredibly dire market conditions. If it’s really true that Panasonic produces 5000 units of the GH4 per month (that alone would equal a share of approx. 30% of the entire m43 market) then things are looking pretty good. As reference: Minolta used to produce this number of the 7000 AF on a daily basis back in 1985 …
5000 units per month means 60000 units per year. If that is 30% of the m43 market, then that means that ~200000 m43 units are produced per year.
Now, according to CIPA statistics, the Japanese manufacturers produced ~3.2 million mirrorless ILCs during 2013. That would give m43 (Panasonic and Olympus) slightly more than a 6% market share! Surely, that ain’t right.
I have read that Olympus and Panasonic are #2 and #3 in mirrorless (after Sony), in terms of global market share, and that they have about 20% each of the mirrorless market. That would give m43 a 40% market share, or almost 1.3 million units. That, in turn, means that the GH4 accounts for less than 5% of the m43 market.