Despite the significant transition in the industry, Canon’s market share has remained constant. You seem to think DSLRs dropped precipitously, but if you look at CIPA data the decline has been pretty linear. What that means is that Canon’s sales of mirrorless cameras have increased to maintain their market share as compact and DLSR sales dropped steadily over the past 10 years.
Yes, that is part of what I see from CIPA numbers:
| 2020 | | 2021 | | 2022 | | 2023 | |
Mirrorless | 2,933,080 | 33% | 3,106,499 | 37% | 4,073,511 | 51% | 4,832,813 | 63% |
DSLR | 2,374,569 | 27% | 2,241,772 | 27% | 1,853,222 | 23% | 1,166,100 | 15% |
Built In Lens | 3,578,643 | 40% | 3,013,250 | 36% | 2,084,865 | 26% | 1,721,591 | 22% |
Total | 8,886,292 | | 8,361,521 | | 8,011,598 | | 7,720,505 | |
2023 saw a 40% drop in DSLR's. Camera sales have picked up slight this year so I doubt we'll see the samedrop in 2024. But none the less I think DSLR's are about gone in 5 years. I'm guessing maybe 1M DSLR's in 2024 with a gradual decrease. However what the numbers don't show is the value of those units sold.
"with mirrorless cameras now making up 83.75% of ILC shipments by volume, and 92.9% by value. "
So DSLR's currently are just 7% of the ILC market from a value perspective. Those units may help to boost market share from units perspective but the writing is on the wall. Chasing market share for a segment that is decreasing in value doesn't produce the most profit.
https://dclife.jp/camera_news/article/etc/2023/0905_01.html
Mirrorless camera global market share 2022 (unit basis)
- Canon: 1.54 million units
- Sony: 1.25 million units
- Nikon: 530,000 units
- Fujifilm: 360,000 units
- OM Digital … 140,000 units
- Panasonic: 140,000 units
This means that Canon was roughly 38% (1.54/4)of the mirrorless market in 2022 and grew to 41% of the market in 2023. Sony was 31% of the market in 2022 and grew to 32% in 2023.
However:
Digital camera global market share 2022 (value basis: sales)
- Sony: 565 billion yen
- Canon: 509.7 billion yen
- Fujifilm: 410.3 billion yen
- Nikon … 227.1 billion yen
From the recent Nikkei article:
"Smartphones continue to squeeze the market for cameras designed for mass consumption. Because of those dynamics, Sony has concentrated resources developing mid-end and high-end cameras. "
Canon strategy has been to remain the market leader, while Sony's strategy is sell more profitable cameras. The recent release of the R1 may help Canon as it fills out the upper end of its lineup. But look at the R6mii. The Respective Sony and Nikon cameras are $2,500 and Canon responded by reducing the price to $2,000. They R8 is their entry level full frame an its $1,300. If you're talking about newer full frames then Sony's cheapest is the A7CII which is $2,200. You have to go to the the OLD A7C which came out 4 years ago and still sells for $1,600.
The increase in cameras this year is also telling. For example we will like see an increase in fixed lens cameras. This segment has been dying as it is comprised of mostly cheap cameras. However:
"Similarly, the value of fixed-lens camera sales surged by 34.7% to ¥37.6 billion ($233 million), indicating that some of the growth in the compact market is driven by desirable high-value cameras like Fujifilm's X100VI."
Again, one of the brands is finding away to sell high end cameras vs more cameras. If you look back to the numbers above Fuji dropped from 9% of the mirrorless market share to 8% leading to Canon's increase in mirrorless market share but Fuji will make more money selling a $1,600 fixed lens camera. Fuji could've easily sold more units at a lower price but they realilze quantity isn't the game anymore.
The bottom of the market where Canon crushes it in market share is evaporating. Sony sees this and is looking beyond cameras. Cameras are a small portion of their larger CMOS market that they lead. They are perfectly happy to sell high end cameras to professionals and "prosumers" as the smartphone markets eats away traditional cameras sales.
To Canon's credit, they have a very loyal fanbase. I think this is a gift and a curse. That fanbase appears to be older. I think Canon will not be forced to change witht the times as Youtube, TIkTok and creating "content" becomes a larger part of the market. As the old guard dies out there wont be enough people to replace them.