The camera crisis: Olympus E-M1 selling well. Debunking myths on camera sales (better than expected).

Image courtesy: Personal View.

Olympus CEO released an interview at Diamond (a Japanese Magazine). In short he says that Olympus didn’t expect the compact camera fixed lens market to drop that dramatically. But the good news for them is that the new Olympus E-m1 is selling very well and also their PEN camera sales are good. The most important thing Olympus built up a good reputation on the market.

Image courtesy: Personal View.

Cameras.Reviewed and Mainichi analyzed the latest CIP data and while it’s true that sales went down this year there is also some surprising positive aspects to report. Personal View analyzed the data and discovered that actually compact camera sales are now steady (no more dropping) while DSLR and Mirrorless system camera sales increased recently! The graph on very top shows you how DSLR and Mirrorless camera shipments increased (CIPA data from Japanese companies). And when you look at the second graph you wills ee that compact camera market is now steady.

In short: On year to year to basis it is true that this year was worse than 2012. But lately things have gone a bit better. So, are we sure that the dramatic reports and forecast are not…too exaggerated?