Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

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bakubo
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Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

Unread post by bakubo »

I found this posted elsewhere today. It is dated 2012/2/26. Note that this list includes DSLRs, NEX, m4/3, and other non-digicam cameras.

Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

http://www.dslrphoto.com/dslr/space.php ... g&view=all
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

Unread post by Greg Beetham »

Wowzer the pink Nikon J1 is seven places in front of the A77 ha ha :lol: ….I see the NEX7+kit lens is doing ok at 14th spot but I don’t know how, you would never catch me paying $3,847.46 for it. Btw what happened to the SLT’s? they don’t even get a mention until about page 4, weren’t they supposed to be turning the camera world on it’s head?
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bakubo
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

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Greg Beetham wrote:Wowzer the pink Nikon J1 is seven places in front of the A77 ha ha :lol:
The Pentax Q at #51 is also ranked above a lot of other cameras. The funny thing is that when I see some of the comments about the Nikon V1/J1 and Pentax Q on the dpreview forums I chuckle, because most people totally misunderstand the main market for these cameras. The Pentax Q advertisements in Japan are aimed at young women, same as the Nikon J1. Women are a big market for cameras in Asia -- not just Japan. Up until recently the photo magazines in Japan were all aimed mostly towards men, but now there are several aimed at women with titles that make that clear, cover photos of women holding cameras, graphics that often use pink and pastel colors, etc. I have looked through them a few times and as one might expect they tend to be lighter on the nuts and bolts of the hardware and more about the photos and lifestyle.
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bfitzgerald
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

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Hmm I personally find the Q a bit of a joke esp the tiny sensor size and "toy lenses" gimmick slapped all over it.
On the Nikon 1 models I don't have a problem with the sensor size (images are surprisingly good from what I have seen) but..these models leave quite a bit to be desired in relation to design and controls. The "double newbie" take on the Nikon's is a shame really, fine make a camera for women but that isn't your only market.

So we can safely dismiss the Q and the recent K-01 embarrassment as no hope products bar niche market. The 1 could be good it's just crying out to be packaged in a decent body (think P7100 or near there and we're talking interesting) But as of right now I can't say any of the ILC models grabs me or tempts me even remotely.

It's a tricky market I see Samsung have pretty much completely failed to make any impact and they're busy selling off NX models at blow out prices as they can't seem to shift them. One thing is certain never ever big mouth your products and Samsung made that mistake touting they would be such a big player yet failed in reality. ILC is going to be every bit if not more competitive than the DSLR game is. I would not be shocked to see another maker drop out of cameras in the next few years.
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

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Barry, I am not interested in the Pentax Q either. I don't make predictions on whether it will sell or not though. Here is an example of some of the photo magazines aimed at women in Japan:

http://joshi-camera.com/

http://shagirl.ning.com/

http://capacamera.net/photogar/

http://www.phatphoto.jp/

http://www.cameralife.com/

http://capacamera.net/dcapa/contents/201203.html

Small and cute are popular in Japan, especially with a lot of women. There are many products that I have no interest in, photo related and not photo related, that a company might think there is a market for. I have no idea whether Pentax is right about the Q, but I do know that the ads I have seen have been aimed at women. Some men may be interested too though. Remember the old Pentax 110 SLR from 1978? So tiny that ergonomics were really bad and used tiny film, but some people bought it -- probably mostly in Japan. These days the market for small, cute cameras is the rest of Asia too since the people in many of the countries have a lot more disposable income than they did in the days of the Pentax 110 SLR. In those days Japan was about the only country in Asia where enough people had the money to buy stuff like that.
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

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It's difficult for me to be completely objective with Pentax due to my own experience with them (ie awful!)
On the Q I can't see it nailing the enthusiast crowd and to me that is likely more important or what I would care more about.

If Pentax can sell a decent number in Japan that's great, I personally felt it was a waste of resources which could be put into far more useful areas.
I mean how can you compete with Nikon's massive advertising budget and Ashton Kutcher smiling?. Corny as it may well be most girls I know will buy into this advertising. Nikon will get their sales because of this, and because they think Ashton is a hunk. Corny works at times believe it or not.
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

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bfitzgerald wrote:I mean how can you compete with Nikon's massive advertising budget and Ashton Kutcher smiling?. Corny as it may well be most girls I know will buy into this advertising. Nikon will get their sales because of this, and because they think Ashton is a hunk. Corny works at times believe it or not.
Never once saw an Ashton Kutcher commercial in Japan. You have to remember that the whole world is not Europe, Australia, and the U.S. There are a handful of potential customers in other places such as Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India, etc. There are lots of products that I have no interest in, probably you also have no interest in, but companies make them and they sell. Right off the top of my head I am sure I have never bought a tampon, a farm tractor, an iphone, or lacy underwear and yet companies make all of this stuff and it appears they sell enough for them to think the business is worthwhile enough to continue doing so.
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

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bakubo wrote: You have to remember that the whole world is not Europe, Australia, and the U.S. There are a handful of potential customers in other places such as Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India, etc. There are lots of products that I have no interest in, probably you also have no interest in, but companies make them and they sell. Right off the top of my head I am sure I have never bought a tampon, a farm tractor, an iphone, or lacy underwear and yet companies make all of this stuff and it appears they sell enough for them to think the business is worthwhile enough to continue doing so.
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

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Dr. Harout wrote:
bakubo wrote: You have to remember that the whole world is not Europe, Australia, and the U.S. There are a handful of potential customers in other places such as Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India, etc. There are lots of products that I have no interest in, probably you also have no interest in, but companies make them and they sell. Right off the top of my head I am sure I have never bought a tampon, a farm tractor, an iphone, or lacy underwear and yet companies make all of this stuff and it appears they sell enough for them to think the business is worthwhile enough to continue doing so.
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

Unread post by Greg Beetham »

Normally things like a pink J1 might slip under the radar for me but I think various camera brands have been selling ‘pretty’ compact cameras all over the world for a quite a while and at a guess aimed at the female market (although I’m not sure about males who wear lacy underwear). I saw on the news last nite that Nokia, I think it was, is estimating they will sell (or want too sell) 60million smart-phones this year and a good percentage of those will go to the female market for sure, the new chic handy cam, the images are becoming so good now it won’t be long before compact camera sales feel the pressure, if not already, why lug a compact camera AND a camera-phone when the smart-phone does just as good a job.
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bakubo
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

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Yes, camera phones are popular everywhere and lots of people who might otherwise have bought a small digicam are just using their phone now. Smartphones have caught on here in Japan too, but maybe they were a bit slower to get going than in the U.S. Now, they are quite popular with many attractive Japanese models running Android and, of course, the iphone too.
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

Unread post by bfitzgerald »

Actually if you combine the sales of Europe and the USA it's massive and quite a lot larger than Japan :wink: It's not the whole world but a good chunk of it sales wise. Which is why I treat the Japan figures with some caution
My limited experience of the culture of this region...well let me put it like this it's quite different to Western culture so I'm not surprised Ashton isn't over there

Still we can thank Japan for "Hello Kitty"
And yes I bought a Tamagotchi back in the late 90's too. I still wonder why I did that novelty I suppose
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

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bfitzgerald wrote:Actually if you combine the sales of Europe and the USA it's massive and quite a lot larger than Japan :wink: It's not the whole world but a good chunk of it sales wise. Which is why I treat the Japan figures with some caution
The point is that companies sometimes make products that might be popular in one region and not another and that does not automatically mean they will be a failure. Asia as a whole is pretty large with economies growing faster and the standard of living improving faster than in Europe and the U.S. Here is another example of a product that doesn't sell well in Europe and the U.S. but is sold a lot in Asia: rice cookers. Believe it or not, there are many models made by many companies and they sell well thoughout Asia even though to you and many other people it may be a product that fails to excite and looks like it should be a failure.

I was in a big camera store yesterday and they had several Pentax Q cameras sitting out with some extra lenses sitting there too. My recollection was that some were white and some were black. Nice, little compact camera and lenses. Too small for me, but I can imagine some Japanese men might be interested in addition to women. In general, Japanese like small stuff.
bfitzgerald wrote: My limited experience of the culture of this region...well let me put it like this it's quite different to Western culture so I'm not surprised Ashton isn't over there
Lots of Western movie stars used to come here to make TV commercials that they usually wouldn't have been caught dead doing at home, but that seems to have tapered off quite a lot compared to the past. I don't see them as often as I used to. I suppose the poor economy in Japan is partly to blame, although with the very strong yen they could get some of them for a lot less in yen than they used to pay. I think there is also less interest in that sort of thing than there used to be. I did see a new commercial a few days ago, maybe it was for Honda, with Bruce Willis though. Still see something occasionally, just not as much as I used to. Fortunately, it seems that Japanese have better taste with regards to Ashton Kutcher than some do in the States since I haven't seen him here. :lol:
bfitzgerald wrote: Still we can thank Japan for "Hello Kitty"
And yes I bought a Tamagotchi back in the late 90's too. I still wonder why I did that novelty I suppose
Nikon is a Japanese company too as are many others.
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

Unread post by bakubo »

bakubo wrote:Small and cute are popular in Japan, especially with a lot of women. There are many products that I have no interest in, photo related and not photo related, that a company might think there is a market for. I have no idea whether Pentax is right about the Q, but I do know that the ads I have seen have been aimed at women. Some men may be interested too though. Remember the old Pentax 110 SLR from 1978? So tiny that ergonomics were really bad and used tiny film, but some people bought it -- probably mostly in Japan.
My memory was that the Pentax 110 SLR was about the same size as the new Pentax Q. Wrong. I saw them both next to each other in a store in Shinjuku this afternoon with their standard kit lens. The 110 is quite a bit smaller than the Q. This will give you a rough idea of the relative sizes:

110: Sony A55 + 50mm f1.8
Q: Sony A77 + 16-50mm f2.8

Not exact, but the size relationship is in that ballpark. The 110 was tinier than I remembered.
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Re: Cameras Sales Ranking in Japan

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bakubo wrote:Fortunately, it seems that Japanese have better taste with regards to Ashton Kutcher than some do in the States since I haven't seen him here. :lol:
I saw a big poster on the wall of a camera store today advertising the Nikon V1. As I said, the Japanese have better taste and don't use Ashton Kutcher. They use this guy. I have seen him sometimes on TV; I think he is an actor. I know nothing about him, but I am sure he must be better than Ashton Kutcher. :lol:

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