Canon’s Q2 2019 Financial Report Shows Steep Decline in Camera Sales
Canon released their Q2 2019 financial results earlier this week, showing that recent predictions of a steep decline in profit were on the money (so to speak). But despite reporting significant declines in both Net Sales and Unit Sales of their cameras, the company remains optimistic about its prospects in the mirrorless camera market.
The full financial presentation includes results for all of Canon’s businesses, including the Medical Systems business where the company experienced double-digit growth. That’s where the good news ends, unfortunately.
The Imaging System business—which includes cameras and inkjet printers—saw a Net Sales decrease of 18.5%. If you break Cameras out by themselves, you’ll see that this segment actually saw an even steeper decline, posting a 24.9% decrease as compared to Q2 of 2018. Unit sales for the second quarter also decreased by 22%, and Canon adjusted its full year projections to account for these declines.
You can see the full presentation below, or dive into the numbers more deeply on the Canon Global financial results page:
When presenting this material, Canon’s Executive Vice President and CFO Toshizo Tanaka admitted that the company continues to expect camera sales to decline. “In Imaging System, we expect sales and profit of interchangeable-lens cameras to decline, due to the continued impact of mainly entry-class DSLR market contraction,” said Toshizo-san. “However, in the area of mirrorless cameras, where we are focusing our energy, the effects of expanding our lineup will continue to lead to sales growth.”
As for how exactly they’ll do this, Toshizo-san called out three strategies. They will “enhance our lineup launching 5 new lenses for mirrorless cameras” and bundle the EOS R cameras “with accessories like our lens adapter that makes it possible to use our existing rich lens lineup”; they will “further strengthen our efforts to generate user interest in our mirrorless cameras,” by creating more “touch-points” where people can actually get hands-on with the EOS R system; and they will target the professional market to “foster trust in our products, offering, among others, enhanced support at international sports events.”
Browse the full presentation with Toshizo-san’s speech summary below:
There’s a lot to take away from this full presentation, but if you need a TL;DR, it might go something like this:
As the camera market continues to shrink, and sales continue to decline, Canon sees some hope in the growth of the mirrorless camera market and is planning to go “all-in” on the full-frame EOS R system to ensure they don’t miss out on that opportunity.
(via Digital Camera World)
