Canon Again Turns to Asia as West Nears Saturation

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Canon Again Turns to Asia as West Nears Saturation

TOKYO, MAR 10 – Due to increased use of smartphones for taking pictures and the camera market heading towards saturation in the West, leading camera producer Canon has concentrated its marketing efforts on Asia. As a result, Nepal has also emerged as one of the priority countries for the global camera giant. Over the last one decade, Asia has emerged as a big market with the market share of its DSLR cameras jumping from 9 percent in 2003 to 30 percent in 2013. As Asian countries are becoming increasingly rich with larger populations capable of purchasing cameras, Canon has focused on this market.

Canon has also seen a huge market scope in Nepal given that the country is a relatively unexplored market and the penetration rate of smartphones is also lower compared to the developed world. “People in emerging markets like Nepal still do not own smartphones and cameras overwhelmingly, but they have mobile sets,” said Heideaki Nishimura, senior director and general manager, consumer imaging and information products group, Canon Singapore, which looks after Nepal market too. “If we can provide cameras at cheaper prices, there are definitely huge prospects for market growth.”

In view of Nepal’s market potential, Canon has planned to organize a workshop and establish an “image square shop” with touch-and-try facility in coordination with its Nepali distributor Primax International.

The image square shop is also aimed at providing professional assistance to photographers. In Indonesia and Cambodia, it is organizing marathons. Canon said that these initiatives were taken to promote the photography culture in the respective countries. Nishimura said that Cannon wanted to develop a healthy photography culture in Nepal as it one of the many Asian countries that missed the photography culture some 20-30 years ago when the developed countries including Japan had a huge penetration rate for cameras.

Camera vs smartphone

It has been slightly more than a decade that digital cameras started to replace film-based camera, but the rise of smartphones has challenged the digital camera before it has even matured enough. Smartphone have particularly hit the compact camera business hard. Canon’s top officials admitted that the rise of smartphones massively affected the compact camera business, but not the entire range of cameras.

“High-priced and high-capacity cameras are still doing well in the market. Based on the model of the camera, the market of such cameras has increased by 50-180 percent,” said Masaya Maeda, managing director, chief executive of image communication products operation of Canon Inc. “Even in the compact camera category, high-end cameras with larger zoom magnification are selling well with their sales rising by 50-100 percent over the last one year.”

He claimed that smartphones could never challenge the camera once people know the difference between cameras and smartphones in terms of picture quality. While compact cameras are facing hardships in the market, DSLRs which professionals usually use, have witnessed a massive rise in sales in recent years.

Go Tokura, who heads the DSLR product group of Canon Inc, said the rise of smartphones had not affected this category of cameras as people using this camera know the difference in quality between pictures taken by cameras and smartphones.

Despite competition from smartphones, Canon’s strategy is to collaborate with smartphones instead of confronting them. “When everyone has a smartphone, it will be a communication infrastructure for us. People will take pictures with DSLRs and compact cameras, and they will connect with the internet and upload the pictures on smartphones,” said Maeda. For this purpose, Canon has added features like instant connectivity with an inbuilt Wi-Fi system in their latest products.

Launch of camcorders

Despite a long history in cameras, Canon started making camcorders (video cameras for cinema) only in 2012, but it has established itself as a huge brand in that category too. Canon has claimed that it holds the number one position in the US with a market share of 38 percent, and the number two position in Western Europe with a market share of 38 percent as of the third quarter of 2013.

Canon Again Turns to Asia as West Nears Saturation

TOKYO, MAR 10 – Due to increased use of smartphones for taking pictures and the camera market heading towards saturation in the West, leading camera producer Canon has concentrated its marketing efforts on Asia. As a result, Nepal has also emerged as one of the priority countries for the global camera giant. Over the last one decade, Asia has emerged as a big market with the market share of its DSLR cameras jumping from 9 percent in 2003 to 30 percent in 2013. As Asian countries are becoming increasingly rich with larger populations capable of purchasing cameras, Canon has focused on this market.

Canon has also seen a huge market scope in Nepal given that the country is a relatively unexplored market and the penetration rate of smartphones is also lower compared to the developed world. “People in emerging markets like Nepal still do not own smartphones and cameras overwhelmingly, but they have mobile sets,” said Heideaki Nishimura, senior director and general manager, consumer imaging and information products group, Canon Singapore, which looks after Nepal market too. “If we can provide cameras at cheaper prices, there are definitely huge prospects for market growth.”

In view of Nepal’s market potential, Canon has planned to organize a workshop and establish an “image square shop” with touch-and-try facility in coordination with its Nepali distributor Primax International.

The image square shop is also aimed at providing professional assistance to photographers. In Indonesia and Cambodia, it is organizing marathons. Canon said that these initiatives were taken to promote the photography culture in the respective countries. Nishimura said that Cannon wanted to develop a healthy photography culture in Nepal as it one of the many Asian countries that missed the photography culture some 20-30 years ago when the developed countries including Japan had a huge penetration rate for cameras.

Camera vs smartphone

It has been slightly more than a decade that digital cameras started to replace film-based camera, but the rise of smartphones has challenged the digital camera before it has even matured enough. Smartphone have particularly hit the compact camera business hard. Canon’s top officials admitted that the rise of smartphones massively affected the compact camera business, but not the entire range of cameras.

“High-priced and high-capacity cameras are still doing well in the market. Based on the model of the camera, the market of such cameras has increased by 50-180 percent,” said Masaya Maeda, managing director, chief executive of image communication products operation of Canon Inc. “Even in the compact camera category, high-end cameras with larger zoom magnification are selling well with their sales rising by 50-100 percent over the last one year.”

He claimed that smartphones could never challenge the camera once people know the difference between cameras and smartphones in terms of picture quality. While compact cameras are facing hardships in the market, DSLRs which professionals usually use, have witnessed a massive rise in sales in recent years.

Go Tokura, who heads the DSLR product group of Canon Inc, said the rise of smartphones had not affected this category of cameras as people using this camera know the difference in quality between pictures taken by cameras and smartphones.

Despite competition from smartphones, Canon’s strategy is to collaborate with smartphones instead of confronting them. “When everyone has a smartphone, it will be a communication infrastructure for us. People will take pictures with DSLRs and compact cameras, and they will connect with the internet and upload the pictures on smartphones,” said Maeda. For this purpose, Canon has added features like instant connectivity with an inbuilt Wi-Fi system in their latest products.

Launch of camcorders

Despite a long history in cameras, Canon started making camcorders (video cameras for cinema) only in 2012, but it has established itself as a huge brand in that category too. Canon has claimed that it holds the number one position in the US with a market share of 38 percent, and the number two position in Western Europe with a market share of 38 percent as of the third quarter of 2013.

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March 20, 2014 at 11:26 AM