Kodak digital camera shipments fall
Kodak digital camera shipments fall
Rochester Business Journal, NY
By MIKE DICKINSON
Rochester Business Journal
April 3, 2007
Eastman Kodak Co.’s worldwide shipments of digital cameras fell 19.5 percent in 2006, a new market research report states.
Kodak maintained its No. 3 position for the year, but its share dipped 4 percentage points, Massachusetts-based IDC states in its latest report, 2006 Worldwide Digital Camera Market Share.
Worldwide shipments of digital still cameras, including digital SLRs, reached 106 million units in 2006, driven by strong DSLR shipments and strong growth in Eastern Europe, parts of Asia and Latin America, IDC reports. It represents 15 percent growth over 2005. DSLR shipments grew 39 percent to more than 5.2 million units.
The digital SLR growth helped Canon Inc. keep its No. 1 position in 2006 with 18.7 percent share, up from 17.4 share a year ago, the report states. Sony Corp., which became the third largest supplier of DSLRs, remained in second place in digital cameras, with its share rising from 15.2 percent in 2005 to 15.8 percent in 2006.
Kodak’s share dropped from 14.2 percent in 2005 to 10 percent in 2006. It remained ahead of No. 4 Olympus Corp., which fell to 8.6 percent from 9.8 percent.
Kodak CEO Antonio Perez in January 2006 announced Kodak would forgo some digital camera sales that were not profitable. That move enabled Kodak to improve its digital bottom line but hurt total sales and share.
The big winner in 2006 was Samsung, IDC said, which displaced Nikon Inc. and became the fifth-largest seller of digital cameras in the world. The firm doubled its share from 4 percent in 2005 to 8 percent in 2006. Nikon ranked sixth with 7.6 share, down from 7.9.
Kodak was the only firm in the top six that saw its shipment falls in 2006.
IDC’s Christopher Chute, research manager for IDC’s worldwide digital imaging practice, said the digital camera market will continue to slow down even as the camera becomes more of a personal device than a household item.
“Some vendors seem to understand that solidifying long-term share means bolstering current share through worldwide marketing efforts, not just product development.
“Some vendors seem to understand that solidifying long-term share means bolstering current share through worldwide marketing efforts, not just product development. Samsung is an excellent example of this. Sony is another; through heavily marketing its first DSLR, the firm achieved a third place rank in the global DSLR rankings,” he said in a statement.
IDC reports Kodak had no shipments or share of DSLR cameras in 2006, after having a 0.5 percent share in 2005.
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