Mr. Hamada from Hoya-Pentax provided an interesting market overview:
“• Inventory is still accumulating in Europe. Production and shipments are higher than the momentum of consumption. This year, SLR cameras will grow by 15-20% over the previous year in terms of production, shipment and sales but inventories of compact cameras seem to be building all over Europe. We are keeping careful watch on the situation.
• In Japan, in particular, the mirrorless camera market is growing and is positioned to capture approximately 30% of the SLR market.
• Overseas, mirrorless cameras are selling to some degree in the United Kingdom. Manufacturers may not have got around to sales yet but one way or other the mirrorless cameras are starting to catch on, and all companies will be focusing on sales from now. I think they will have about 30% of the global SLR market within two years or so.
• We have looked carefully at the situation but since sales are not good even when we release the same products as other companies, we would like to release products with an individuality that shines through.”
Oh yeah Pentax is coming soon with their mirrorless camera!
3 Responses
Mr Hamada is not exactly “from Pentax”, he is Hoya’s Chief Operating Officer.
Therefore he has insider views not only on Pentax projects, but also on those of other interchangeable lens manufacturers such as Sigma and Tamron (and Sony ?) since these manufacturers are buying their glas from Hoya, including prototype glas for prototype lenses.
“Production and shipments are higher than the momentum of consumption.”
This is bad news for Pentax. They are producing cameras that nobody wants.
“Production and shipments are higher than the momentum of consumption.”
This remark applied to “inventories of compact cameras seem to be building all over Europe”. He said SLR does great. I think that Pentax knows that sooner or later, they must get rid of their compact camera business…