Reuters has an interesting article regarding Canon's drop in operating profit, which they say is a combination of camera phones decimating compact cameras and MILC eating into DSLR.
The consumer shift to smartphones for casual photo taking has pummelled demand for compact cameras, while the growing popularity of lighter mirrorless cameras has taken away market share from higher margin single-lens reflex cameras.I immediately thought of that 2014 article in DPReview when Samsung's Byungdeok Nam quoted a market report:
...since 2008 when mirrorless systems were announced, mirrorless didn’t grow very rapidly. In the last year, however, market reports are predicting that in 2018/19 mirrorless cameras will outsell DSLRs.That article got a lot of slack from readers, not because it was a quoted market report but because it was said by someone from Samsung and we all know that we can't have someone from a company that isn't Canon, Nikon, Sony or Panasonic commenting on cameras right?
If you want to look at why Samsung is pulling out of various markets, start with dinosaur detractors like that (and that includes staff in retailers). I reckon I have a pretty unique take on this because a. I worked for Samsung NX as a Rep for years and b. I worked in major (flagship stores) in London so I got to observe countless interactions / conversations. I'll be writing about this in another post, hopefully to be published tomorrow (if it doesn't turn into a 10,000 word essay).
