Canon Inc. has released its financial results for the 2nd quarter of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has obviously had a large impact on camera and lens sales, especially with the delays in launching the EOS R5 and EOS R6.
The bolded area at the end of the statement below shows Canon will be entering or developing new spaces for imaging.
From Canon Presentation Material in regards to imaging:
As for the second quarter, due to restrictions placed on people’s movement, there was fewer image capturing opportunities, such as travel and other events. As a result, the willingness of consumers to purchase cameras dropped significantly, leading to a large decline in our sales as well.
As for camera demand, despite the resumption of economic activity, initially in China, and now in the United States and Europe where we saw demand bottom out in April and start to improve from May, we believe it will take time for sales to recover as cameras are considered a luxury item. For the full year, we expect the interchangeable-lens camera market to be down 40% to 5.4 million units. In terms of our own unit sales, we expect a similar rate of decline.
Although the environment that surrounds this business is very challenging, we will simultaneously launch two models in the third quarter, the EOS R5 and EOS R6, facilitating our shift to high value-added products. These two models offer significantly improved performance in every way, including auto-focus, image stabilization, and video capture. These are important new cameras that strengthen our lineup of full-frame mirrorless systems that have evolved since the release of the EOS R in October 2018. By enhancing our lineup of dedicated lenses at the same time, we will raise the appeal of the entire system and solidify our position in the full-frame camera market.
Triggered by COVID-19, cameras, which have traditionally been used for image capturing and image sharing, are taking on even more roles, including communication. For example, as the world of telecommunication expands to include remote meetings etc., the need for even higher precision and accuracy will raise. We are positioning ourselves to capture new demand, for example, addressing the rapidly growing demand for video meetings, we released software that allows our EOS cameras to be used as web cameras. We are also preparing camera bundles that include necessary image capturing accessories for video creators.
Furthermore, we will enhance our new concept camera initiative, which gives no regard to traditional camera concepts, as we prepare to launch the new models within this year.
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