Canon Inc posted a 17.9 percent drop in quarterly operating profit

[neuroanatomist]

Set high prices for lenses, lose sales to competitors, profits go down, what a surprise.

NOT.

Well, thanks for that uninformed opinion.  Did you actually read the linked presentation materials?  Perhaps if you had, you'd have noticed that while Canon lost revenue and profits fell in some business segments, and sales of PowerShot cameras were down, their sales in the dSLR and lens category was actually up 14% in FY12.  Are you surprised now? 

You mean that if Canon sold even more DSLR lenses, it's bottom line wouldn't have improved? That's even more surprising.

It's not surprising at all. Canon is a moderately diversified business, and in particular, the office (copiers) and industrial (lithography) segments are tied tightly to the global economy.

[unfocused]

You might as well surrender Neuro, the confirmation bias overcomes all facts and logic.

[Don Haines]

You might as well surrender Neuro, the confirmation bias overcomes all facts and logic.

Yes, how dare you try to bring facts and reason into an emotional argument!

[Don Haines]

I've been one that thinks the P&S market is dying. Not ready to change that opinion, but it is noteworthy that P&S still accounts for about 80% of all cameras sold.

I would have sworn that the number had to more than 80 percent P&S....Most people I see have P&S cameras and a few people I know who had low end DSLR's have gone to superzoom P&S's, the ones that sort of look like a DSLR and have 25, 30, or more times zoom range.

[ishdakuteb]

when taking a look into some of responses to this thread, i start realize that some people do not bother to read original post which mention about "STRONG YEN", yet they do not even know what is going on between china and japan (east china sea or senkaku islands).

[captainkanji]

The state of the economy could also explain it.  With unemployment and increasing taxes, people probably are less willing to drop several hundred to thousands of dollars on cameras.  If we petition the Government to ban cameras, maybe sales would increase.  Worked for guns.

[jcollett]

when taking a look into some of responses to this thread, i start realize that some people do not bother to read original post which mention about "STRONG YEN", yet they do not even know what is going on between china and japan (east china sea or senkaku islands).

Senkaku Islands?!?! There is no such place to the Chinese; it is the Diaoyu Islands and they are willing to go to war over this.

(Wish I knew how to make a tongue-in-cheek emoticon)

This could end up being a very serious situation on top of all the Korean shenanigans.

[unfocused]

I've been one that thinks the P&S market is dying. Not ready to change that opinion, but it is noteworthy that P&S still accounts for about 80% of all cameras sold.

I would have sworn that the number had to more than 80 percent P&S....Most people I see have P&S cameras and a few people I know who had low end DSLR's have gone to superzoom P&S's, the ones that sort of look like a DSLR and have 25, 30, or more times zoom range.

Don't confuse new sales with ownership. That just means 80% of the cameras sold are P&S. The percentage of people who actually own a P&S could be greater (or less). Basically depends on the replacement rate, which I suspect for many P&S owners is pretty low.

[michi]

Compact cameras will sell less and less as digital phones get better.

Where have you been?  Canon has mentioned this in their annual financial reports for at least the last two years, and so has Nikon.  They are well aware of the trend to use camera phones rather than point and shoot cameras.  That does not mean that P&S cameras don't sell, 80 million were produced in 2012.
checkout 2012 industry wide sales here:  http://www.cipa.jp/english/data/pdf/d_2012_e.pdf
BTW Sony has tried to make headway in the cellphone market and lost their shirt, (huge amounts of actual losses)
This actually puts Canon in a good position, because of their very strong DSLR sales and low cost lens production (most people just buy a kit lens).

Where have I been? Sorry, I don't study companies charts...  But fact is, all my friends and family who are not specifically interested in photography have not replaced their point and shoots but are using their cellphones.  Fine, Canon may be selling X amount of them still, but it will get less and less as more phones with good cameras are sold.  So yes, it will make an impact on the manufacturers eventually, probably sooner than later.  I agree it would be silly for Canon to try to make cellphones, but they could for example try to develop a tiny camera unit with exceptional quality which they could then sell to Samsung or Apple for use in their phones.