Japanese firm BCN Retail released its camera sales report for March, and the numbers are undeniably grim. In Japan, mirrorless camera sales dropped by over 50% year-over-year in March, with little reason to believe they'll rebound in the coming months.
BCN has revealed their awards for 2020, and the biggest news from this year's camera stats is that Sony has overtaken Olympus to claim the #2 spot in Mirrorless category while Canon has finally, for the first time ever, claimed the #1 spot in all three stills camera categories.
Photographer and occasional PetaPixel guest author Robin Wong recently published a very interesting take on a question that most people thought was settled: why is the camera market shrinking? While most people would just blame the rise of smartphones and call it a day, Wong shares a more nuanced, and possibly more accurate, list of reasons.
The worldwide sales of standalone digital cameras have been plummeting since they peaked in around 2010, but Canon thinks its industry is still in for some serious pain in the coming years. The company believes the market will plummet another 50% over just the next two years.
Sony has made big strides in the camera industry with its strong mirrorless camera offerings in recent years, but it has a long way to go before hitting its goal of being the top camera brand by 2021. The 800-pound gorilla in the industry is still Canon, which ranked #1 in both DSLR and mirrorless camera sales in Japan in the year 2018.
After years of declining sales figures and the requisite reporting on the industry's "imminent" collapse, it seems the camera market has finally plateaued. The latest CIPA numbers show modest growth in some areas and neutral numbers elsewhere, hinting that a long sales slump might finally be over.
Things aren't looking good for the standalone point-and-shoot camera. As smartphone cameras continue to improve, compact camera sales continue to nosedive. A new historical sales chart with 2016 figures shows just how quickly point-and-shoots are dying off.
A few months ago, we shared a chart showing how sales the camera market have changed between 1947 and 2014. The data shows that after a large spike in the late 2000s, the sales of dedicated cameras have been shrinking by double digit figures each of the following years. Mix in data for smartphone sales, and the chart can shed some more light on the state of the industry.
How have camera sales changed over the past 60 or 70 years? The chart above offers an interesting look at this question. It shows camera production between 1947 and 2014.
Although there was plenty to be happy about for us photographers last year, 2013 was statistically a very bad year when it comes to camera sales. And now, thanks to an infographic and accompanying video put together by LensVid, we get to look back and find out exactly why that is.