It looks like there is some good news coming out of the camera industry during the pandemic. Canon has exceeded their sales projections for the 2020 fiscal year on the backs of the Canon EOS R6 and Canon EOS R5. Sales for both cameras have exceeded expectations, especially in China.
According to a Nikkei article, Canon is raising their consolidated net income because of the success of both the EOS R6 and EOS R5
In the manufacturing industry, earnings forecasts have been revised upward one after another. Canon announced on the 14th that it will raise its consolidated net income for the fiscal year ending December 2020 due to strong sales of digital cameras in China. The background is the economic recovery in China, and there is a difference between the non-manufacturing industry, whose business performance is declining due to the re-expansion of the new coronavirus infection, and the recovery.
Canon's consolidated net income for the fiscal year ending December 2008 will decrease 36% from the previous fiscal year to 80 billion yen, which is 28 billion yen higher than the previous forecast. New full-frame mirrorless cameras are performing well in the Chinese market. Ink sales for home printers also increased due to the expansion of telecommuting. Read the full article
Canon also saw a good increase in ink sales due to more people working from home.
Canon's full fiscal 2020 financials should be presented before we hit February.
Unfortunately, not all camera makers have the cash to invest in new products.
Canon will still sell alot of cameras but less and less every year.
Other than unreliability it will be hard to justify replacing them. The margin of improvement is getting thinner and thinner.
More intelligent auto focus perhaps, better battery life, its really hard to improve from now on.
IBIS might prove to be built in obsolescence and speed up the replacement cycle.
The path of improvement since my first digital camera in 2000 has been phenomenal.
I never thought they'd be so good at this point this quickly.
Even the lens have reached near perfection.
It just shows what humans can do when their brainpower is used in a positive manner.
It looks like there is some good news coming out of the rumor industry now that the pandemic is over. Canon Rumors is reporting that in spite of the impact of Covid 19, it exceeded rumor projections for the 2020 fiscal year on the backs of such great rumors as "Canon R5 will do 24K 120fps without melting" and "Canon to double-down on the EOS M range in 2050". Rumors for firmware updates for already released cameras also exceeded expectations.
According to an angry EOS-SD article, Canon Rumors is is a shill and any success that has been achieved by the Rumor Mongrel is purely off the backs of the hard-working and magnificent people at EOS-SD and their superior intellect.
Canon Rumor’s consolidated net income for the fiscal year ending December 2020 will decrease 36% from the previous fiscal year due to higher anticipated expenditure on cigars, mice for baiting owls and investments made in outdoor igloos. New full-frame mirrorless cameras are performing well in the rumor market and imaginary articles about future firmware updates will provide a steady income stream through 2021 and beyond.
The cat is not dead. Think back to about 10 years ago when PC sales dropped precipitously and every article was about how smartphones were obsoleting PCs and Laptops (and Macs). There were going to be no more needs for them for most people, the game was over for Dell, HP, IBM, etc. Well, years on and there are still tons of laptops and PCs sold - though the demographics of who buys them may not be the same - and those companies are continuing to exist quite happily. Some have diversified in to other things in larger or smaller amounts, some have not. Canon and others will follow the same path.
The Costco entry level DSLR or point and shoot may be dying now. Most casual moms are going to use their phone etc. But there is a professional and enthusiast market that is still very strong as we see in the posts here and on other photography forums daily. Content creation is increasing every day on multiple platforms. Innovation will continue and provide functionality that today's R5/6 don't offer, and upgrade cycles will continue. Camera companies' offerings will morph to follow the size and need of their user base. The landscape will change, the end does not appear to be in 2021.
-Brian
I picked up an R5, 800mm f11 + hood, 600mm f11 + hood, RF 2x TC, RF 1.,4X TC, RF 100-500, RF 24-105 f4, RF 85L, RF 50 f1.8, RF Control ring adapter, R5 Battery Grip and an extra LPE-6NH all in the second half of 2020.
I still see a lot of DSLR's out there but I have seen what I would say was a good number of R5's in the wild and so far everyone I have seen with one loves it. As far as I can tell I don't think a single one of those R5's was in the hands of someone who was paying their bills with it. I know some of them are also looking forward to the high megapixel body someday too. Keep up the good work Canon.
Reuters states that Canon's operating profit "... is nearly double analysts’ consensus..."
Canon raises outlook as buyers scoop up new models of cameras, printers | Reuters
Don’t tell Dolina
PC sales finally saw big growth in 2020 after years of steady decline | Ars Technica
The increase started in 2019.
"For the full year, PC shipments came to 261.2 million units, showing 0.6 percent growth from 2018. "
So you can say that roughly one in thirty people get a new PC each year. That's pretty impressive.
Nowadays, a smartphone with a lapdock goes a long way, especially with cloud services like Google Docs.