Canon
Plans to Roll Out Nearly 20 New Compact Digital Cameras
Thu December 18, 2003 05:43 AM ET
By Nathan Layne and Kunihiko Kichise
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Canon Inc. said
on Thursday that it plans to roll-out nearly 20 new compact digital
cameras next year in an aggressive product push aimed at grabbing
one-fourth of the global market.
Canon, Japan's largest maker of office
machines, is also busy jostling with electronics giant Sony Corp. for
the top share of the booming digital camera market worldwide.
Takashi Oshiyama, head of Canon's digital
imaging business group, told Reuters in an interview that his firm's
long history building cameras would give it the upper hand against its
rivals, many of which have only been making cameras for a few years.
"We have a 67-year history making
cameras and there is still lots of technology gathered over that time
stored away in the shed," Oshiyama said at Canon's headquarters in
Tokyo.
"Those companies out there that have
no experience producing film cameras have yet to create a camera that
performs like a real camera should. I won't say who that is."
Oshiyama said Canon planned to launch
"about twice" as many compact digital cameras in 2004 as the
nine it rolled out this year. That would help it achieve a market share
of 25 percent, up from around 20 percent in 2003 and 15 percent last
year.
He anticipates shipping "at
least" 12.5 million compact digital cameras in 2004, a jump of
nearly 50 percent from the 8.5 million it estimates for the current
year. Sony is targeting sales of 10 million in the year to next March.
"No matter how big the market gets,
we expect to take a share of 25 percent," Oshiyama said. "If
the market grows to 50 million units, that means 12.5 million cameras
for us. At 55 million, we'll still get a 25 percent share."
Oshiyama said shipments of digital
cameras by Japanese manufacturers would total between 40 and 44 million
units in 2003. That compares to last year's 25 million units, according
to Japan's Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA).
CIPA data excludes production by foreign
firms, but is considered the industry standard since Japanese companies
command a global market share of about 90 percent.
RAMPING UP PRODUCTION
Oshiyama's figures do not include sales of the 500,000 digital single
lens reflex (SLR) cameras that Canon estimates for this year. Canon
launched two digital SLR cameras in 2003 including the "EOS Kiss
Digital" model, which was a big hit with serious camera users at a
price of around 120,000 yen ($1,117).
Oshiyama said Canon had ramped up annual
production capacity to 15 million cameras. That will eventually reach 20
million units thanks to a new digital camera factory in Oita prefecture,
southern Japan, which will begin operations in January 2005.
He believes that China will become
fertile ground for Canon and its industry peers, helping drive the
overall digital camera market to a peak of as high as 100 million units,
possibly in 2008 when Beijing will host the Olympic Games.
"We have said the market would peak
at 80 million units, but I see it going a bit higher to near 100
million," he said. "In terms of potential, there is no country
like China with its 1.3 billion people and seven percent annual rate of
economic growth."
Canon is also banking on brisk sales of
its compact digital photo printers, which connect directly to the camera
with a USB cable and enable consumers to produce physical prints without
a computer.
Oshiyama said they would ship 300,000
units in 2003, but he expects to sell 1.2 million next year.
($1=107.38 Yen)
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