‘Tis the season of mergers, acquisitions, and investments. At around the same time Adobe announced its acquisition of Behance yesterday, Taiwanese gadget manufacturer Foxconn (officially known as Hon Hai Precision) announced that it has snatched up 8.88% of GoPro for $200 million. The deal values the California-based action-camera maker at a whopping $2.25 billion.
Read more…
So this was the first sunset I captured in 2012. It cost me $6,612 to take this photo.
Read more…
By Martin Pannier on picuous
Unlike most videos you find on the web, images aren’t very easy for the average person to share. Rather than hotlink photos from their original source, as is done for videos, most “sharing” involves downloading the photos, uploading them somewhere else, and then publishing that new version of the image. Picuous, a new service that launched today, aims to change that by bringing one-click Vimeo-style sharing to online photographs.
Read more…
Bloomberg reports that Canon and Nikon’s failure thus far to enter the mirrorless camera market has allowed Sony to eat into their combined market share — at least in Japan:
Canon and Nikon’s combined share of the Japanese market [for interchangeable lens cameras] has fallen by 35 percent, while Sony’s share has doubled
“Mirrorless cameras are a threat,” said David Rubenstein, a Tokyo-based analyst [...] “If the western geographies follow the same pattern as Asia, then it will be negative for Nikon and Canon.”
“In the long run, Canon and Nikon will have to enter the market,” said Hideki Yasuda, a Tokyo-based analyst [...] “Still, it won’t be too late for them to enter the market after mirrorless cameras become a global trend.”
Although mirrorless cameras are becoming all the rage in Japan, its adoption outside the country is much slower. Canon still owns a 45% share of the global SLR market, while Nikon remains at 30%. Canon also earned $1.5 billion in profit from selling SLRs last year, four times the profit generated by its compact cameras. SLR cameras and lenses were also Nikon’s biggest moneymaker.
Canon Clinging to Mirrors Means Opportunity for Sony Cameras [Bloomberg]
Production issues experienced by Canon and Nikon (caused by the earthquake and tsunami) may soon allow competitors to eat into their dominant DSLR market shares and, according to a story by USA TODAY, Sony is pegged as one of the main benefactors:
Canon has 44.5% of the digital SLR market, followed by Nikon at 29.8%, Sony with 11.9% and Olympus at 5.1%, IDC says.
[...] At a time when many Canon SLRs are hard to find, due to production issues, the Sony models are not only in amply supply, but discounted to sell with special promotions.
[...] Sony has the name recognition, and ample shelf space in prominent stores.
These gains would likely be limited to first time buyers who are looking for their first DSLR — camera owners already committed to Canon or Nikon’s mounts are unlikely to switch systems just because of a temporary shortage.
Sony could benefit from shortages of Canon, Nikon SLRs [USA TODAY]
Market research firm IDC released its findings about the worldwide digital camera market recently, with interesting details about the current market shares of camera manufacturers. From 2009 to 2010, Canon’s share remained perfectly constant at 19%, while #2 player Sony increased its share from 16.9% to 17.9%. Nikon also grew from 11.1% to 12.6%. The worldwide market for digital cameras is also growing — last year it increased 10% to 141 million cameras sold.
Read more…
The camera market may look vastly different in the future than the Canon and Nikon dominated one we see today if recent trends continue. Amateur Photographer is reporting that the combined share of Canon and Nikon dropped a whopping 11% in Japan through 2010, and is currently at 60.4%. What’s more, Sony has increased its share to 15.2%, and has in fact overtaken Nikon in the UK, capturing 25% of interchangeable cameras sold compared to Nikon’s 20%.
Sony received a lot of attention in recent months for its innovation, launching the world’s first translucent mirror DSLRs and the NEX line of EVIL cameras. Canon and Nikon have yet to enter the EVIL market, though Nikon is rumored to have a pro-level mirrorless camera ready by April.
