Losing focus
By Li Qiaoyi Source:Global Times Published: 2012-11-9 20:15:04
Nikon camera products on display at a photography equipment show in Beijing. Photo: CFP
The launch of the D5200, Nikon Corp's newest entry-level digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR), on Tuesday may certainly lift the spirits of photography aficionados, given the Japanese camera maker's potent name in the camera world.
Featuring the DX-format CMOS sensor with a pixel count of 24.1 effective megapixels as well as its 39-point autofocus system, the successor to the 18-month-old D5100 signals Nikon's ambitions to take on its cross-town rival Canon Inc's EOS 650D DSLR, which arrived this summer.
Again, camera hobbyists and gurus from the two big camps, Nikon and Canon, that have long been skeptical of each other's products may start another war of words over which deserves greater applause.
But all the fuss might hardly make much of a splash in the crowded tech battlefield, where a dazzling array of mobile gadgets such as smartphones and tablet PCs are all the rage, especially during a period of anti-Japanese sentiment among affluent Chinese consumers in the wake of an intense territorial row between China and Japan.
Consumers' resistance to Japanese goods in the world's second-largest economy has grown to an extent that has surprised even Japanese manufacturers who boast products of exquisite engineering and design. From home appliance items to cars to machinery, many Japanese products are being crossed off Chinese consumers' lists and replaced with goods from other companies.
Even in the field of digital cameras that has been almost monopolized by Japanese manufacturers, Chinese consumer sentiment has also been impacted due to the two countries' soured relations amid the territorial dispute.
"Our sales revenue averaged tens of thousands of yuan in normal days prior to the territorial dispute. However, business has grown difficult ever since Chinese consumer sentiment turned anti-Japanese," said a salesman at an authorized distributor of Canon's camera products in Shanghai at the beginning of the month. "It is unclear when consumer sentiment will eventually pick up."
Daily sales revenue has since shrunk to several thousand yuan, according to the salesman, who revealed that the salaries of the employees at the store have dropped sharply since the downturn in sales, despite the fact that they are selling the world's bestselling camera products.
Weary consumer sentiment
Market watchers also predicted a pessimistic outlook for the digital camera market as a result of weary consumer sentiment, especially in the segment of point-and-shoot gadgets.
"Sales of digital cameras sagged around 20 percent in the Chinese market in the third quarter of the year compared to a year earlier, taking a hit from consumers' anti-Japanese mood," Liu Xueyan, Shenzhen-based principal analyst for consumer electronics research at consultancy firm IHS iSuppli, said in a phone interview with the Global Times on Thursday.
Exports from the Chinese market, the world's biggest manufacturing base for photography equipment, are suffering even more, tumbling roughly 30 percent during the past quarter, according to Liu, who forecast that the downward trend is likely to be extended until the first half of next year.
But Liu pointed out that the decline is mainly in the segment of compact digital cameras targeting the average camera lover, while the DSLR niche market for more enthusiastic and professional consumers has overall been less affected.
"There are hardly comparable alternatives to Japanese brand-name DLSRs," said Christine Zhao, who recently bought an entry-level Canon DSLR machine and works at a State-owned firm in Beijing.
"I may not consider buying other kinds of Japanese goods such as televisions and PCs for the moment, but it is different when making the decision to purchase a camera," said the woman in her late 20s.
Japanese brands currently compose nearly 90 percent of China's marketplace for digital camera products, with Canon, Sony and Nikon holding the first three spots, according to the results of a survey of 18 retail electronics markets across seven big cities in the country released in September by the Hcsindex, the China Electronic Market Price Index that is authorized by the Ministry of Information Industry Technology (MIIT). Nine out of 10 top brands in China's market are from Japan, according to the Hcsindex.
New wind blowing
The DLSR lineup from Japanese manufacturers may continue to flex their muscles to attract the affections of photography gurus, who have also increasingly become the target market of camera companies in recent years. This new focus is the reverse of their previous strategy of boosting digital camera penetration among average consumers via a bunch of point-and-shoot gadgets.
Despite industry giants pinning their hopes on their most loyal customers, analysts contend, however, that for the whole digital camera world, it may be increasingly harder to expect a promising future in the current era of the mobile Internet.
"The marketplace for digital cameras has been on an overall downward spiral in recent years, as they are being elbowed out by the booming mobile device market," said IHS iSuppli's Liu.
Liu's remarks echoed the market consensus on digital cameras' losing out to a whole array of mobile devices that are becoming increasingly popular among consumers.
The number of subscribers to 3G services in China broke through 200 million at the end of September amid the nation's mobile Internet boom, according to the MIIT. Analysts expect continued growth momentum in Chinese consumers' adoption of smart gadgets given the nation's huge cellphone user base.
This, however, compares to a saturated market for digital cameras in China, according to a report released by the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce. According to the chamber, at the end of last year, around 75 percent of urban residents of big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai owned camera products, pointing to little growth room out there.
Camera manufacturers have taken note of this forboding trend, incorporating Wi-Fi connections in their newest gadgets to woo the nation's increasingly tech-savvy consumers, but in the eyes of market analysts, such efforts may prove to be fruitless as their success is threatened by the influx of various mobile devices that sport basic camera functions and are affordably priced.
The newest Galaxy Camera from Samsung Electronics, the world's largest smartphone vendor, could be an exceptional example of camera manufacturers' ambitions to stand out from other mobile devices. The latest and coolest compact digital gadget, powered by the Android Jelly Bean operating system, will start hitting the shelves on Thursday, according to the company.
But for Liu, the newest gadget "is unlikely to reignite the average consumer's interest in digital camera products."
"With their versatile features and wide-ranging capabilities, multipurpose equipment such as smartphones and tablets will continue to cannibalize the sales of digital still cameras and other dedicated consumer electronic items, culminating in the permanent eclipse of such traditional media-rendering gear by 2015," the market research firm IHS iSuppli Consumer said in a report earlier this year.
The launch of the D5200, Nikon Corp's newest entry-level digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR), on Tuesday may certainly lift the spirits of photography aficionados, given the Japanese camera maker's potent name in the camera world.
Featuring the DX-format CMOS sensor with a pixel count of 24.1 effective megapixels as well as its 39-point autofocus system, the successor to the 18-month-old D5100 signals Nikon's ambitions to take on its cross-town rival Canon Inc's EOS 650D DSLR, which arrived this summer.
Again, camera hobbyists and gurus from the two big camps, Nikon and Canon, that have long been skeptical of each other's products may start another war of words over which deserves greater applause.
But all the fuss might hardly make much of a splash in the crowded tech battlefield, where a dazzling array of mobile gadgets such as smartphones and tablet PCs are all the rage, especially during a period of anti-Japanese sentiment among affluent Chinese consumers in the wake of an intense territorial row between China and Japan.
Consumers' resistance to Japanese goods in the world's second-largest economy has grown to an extent that has surprised even Japanese manufacturers who boast products of exquisite engineering and design. From home appliance items to cars to machinery, many Japanese products are being crossed off Chinese consumers' lists and replaced with goods from other companies.
Even in the field of digital cameras that has been almost monopolized by Japanese manufacturers, Chinese consumer sentiment has also been impacted due to the two countries' soured relations amid the territorial dispute.
"Our sales revenue averaged tens of thousands of yuan in normal days prior to the territorial dispute. However, business has grown difficult ever since Chinese consumer sentiment turned anti-Japanese," said a salesman at an authorized distributor of Canon's camera products in Shanghai at the beginning of the month. "It is unclear when consumer sentiment will eventually pick up."
Daily sales revenue has since shrunk to several thousand yuan, according to the salesman, who revealed that the salaries of the employees at the store have dropped sharply since the downturn in sales, despite the fact that they are selling the world's bestselling camera products.
Weary consumer sentiment
Market watchers also predicted a pessimistic outlook for the digital camera market as a result of weary consumer sentiment, especially in the segment of point-and-shoot gadgets.
"Sales of digital cameras sagged around 20 percent in the Chinese market in the third quarter of the year compared to a year earlier, taking a hit from consumers' anti-Japanese mood," Liu Xueyan, Shenzhen-based principal analyst for consumer electronics research at consultancy firm IHS iSuppli, said in a phone interview with the Global Times on Thursday.
Exports from the Chinese market, the world's biggest manufacturing base for photography equipment, are suffering even more, tumbling roughly 30 percent during the past quarter, according to Liu, who forecast that the downward trend is likely to be extended until the first half of next year.
But Liu pointed out that the decline is mainly in the segment of compact digital cameras targeting the average camera lover, while the DSLR niche market for more enthusiastic and professional consumers has overall been less affected.
"There are hardly comparable alternatives to Japanese brand-name DLSRs," said Christine Zhao, who recently bought an entry-level Canon DSLR machine and works at a State-owned firm in Beijing.
"I may not consider buying other kinds of Japanese goods such as televisions and PCs for the moment, but it is different when making the decision to purchase a camera," said the woman in her late 20s.
Japanese brands currently compose nearly 90 percent of China's marketplace for digital camera products, with Canon, Sony and Nikon holding the first three spots, according to the results of a survey of 18 retail electronics markets across seven big cities in the country released in September by the Hcsindex, the China Electronic Market Price Index that is authorized by the Ministry of Information Industry Technology (MIIT). Nine out of 10 top brands in China's market are from Japan, according to the Hcsindex.
New wind blowing
The DLSR lineup from Japanese manufacturers may continue to flex their muscles to attract the affections of photography gurus, who have also increasingly become the target market of camera companies in recent years. This new focus is the reverse of their previous strategy of boosting digital camera penetration among average consumers via a bunch of point-and-shoot gadgets.
Despite industry giants pinning their hopes on their most loyal customers, analysts contend, however, that for the whole digital camera world, it may be increasingly harder to expect a promising future in the current era of the mobile Internet.
"The marketplace for digital cameras has been on an overall downward spiral in recent years, as they are being elbowed out by the booming mobile device market," said IHS iSuppli's Liu.
Liu's remarks echoed the market consensus on digital cameras' losing out to a whole array of mobile devices that are becoming increasingly popular among consumers.
The number of subscribers to 3G services in China broke through 200 million at the end of September amid the nation's mobile Internet boom, according to the MIIT. Analysts expect continued growth momentum in Chinese consumers' adoption of smart gadgets given the nation's huge cellphone user base.
This, however, compares to a saturated market for digital cameras in China, according to a report released by the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce. According to the chamber, at the end of last year, around 75 percent of urban residents of big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai owned camera products, pointing to little growth room out there.
Camera manufacturers have taken note of this forboding trend, incorporating Wi-Fi connections in their newest gadgets to woo the nation's increasingly tech-savvy consumers, but in the eyes of market analysts, such efforts may prove to be fruitless as their success is threatened by the influx of various mobile devices that sport basic camera functions and are affordably priced.
The newest Galaxy Camera from Samsung Electronics, the world's largest smartphone vendor, could be an exceptional example of camera manufacturers' ambitions to stand out from other mobile devices. The latest and coolest compact digital gadget, powered by the Android Jelly Bean operating system, will start hitting the shelves on Thursday, according to the company.
But for Liu, the newest gadget "is unlikely to reignite the average consumer's interest in digital camera products."
"With their versatile features and wide-ranging capabilities, multipurpose equipment such as smartphones and tablets will continue to cannibalize the sales of digital still cameras and other dedicated consumer electronic items, culminating in the permanent eclipse of such traditional media-rendering gear by 2015," the market research firm IHS iSuppli Consumer said in a report earlier this year.