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News and commentary of interest to Nikon and Nikon F-mount users
Nikon Fiscal Year 2008 Results
May 12--Nikon announced it's full year results today. Remember, Nikon's fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31 and is named for the year it ends in (e.g. Fiscal 2008 ended March 31, 2008). Some numbers of interest to readers of this site:
| |
Fiscal 2007 |
Fiscal 2008 |
2009 (est) |
| Imaging Sales |
449b yen |
586b yen |
620b yen |
| Imaging Income |
45.7b yen |
84b yen |
80b yen |
| Imaging R&D |
18.3b yen |
19.9b yen |
NA |
| DSLR units |
2,090k |
3,090k |
3,300k |
| Coolpix units |
5,920k |
8,550k |
9,300k |
| Lens units |
2,640k |
4,450k |
4,700k |
Now let's read the tea leaves. First, note that Nikon's DSLR growth in the past year far outstripped that of the market (i.e., they gained market share) but they are predicting very mild unit growth in the coming fiscal year. The overall profit estimates are also slightly down. Either Nikon thinks the DSLR rush is over, that competition will be much more intense, that the global economy is stalled, or that its sales are shifting away from low-end units and high volumes (or some combination of the above). This is the most bearish Nikon has been in future estimates in recent years and makes me wonder about where the D80 replacement, high resolution FX body, and prosumer FX body fit in. Even the lens sales numbers, which skyrocketed last year, have only a modest increase predicted. Indeed, the basic overall formula in the Imaging Division numbers seems to be <10% increase in unit volume and a 10% drop in profit.
I should also point out that Nikon's estimated exchange rate for 2009 is 100 yen to the dollar (down from 114 in 2008; the Euro is pegged at 155, down from 162). As I write this, the current rate is somewhere around 104. I still suspect some price increases when Nikon's forecast resolves into realit.
Software Updates
May 8--Another round of software updates of interest:
- PhotoAcute Studio 2.8--improves HDR handling, adds additional lens profiling for D3, D300, D50, and D80 bodies.
- Autopano Pro 1.4.2--mostly bug fixes and performance related changes, but a few of those deal with issues that some of us reported with NEF images, particularly with the 10.5mm.
- Microsoft Expression Media 2--(formerly iView Media Pro). Faster, with shared catalogs, better importing.
- Nikon D3 Firmware 1.1B re-released. The corruption bug (reported below) has been fixed and the firmware update made available again.
- Breezebrowser 1.8 now supports the D300 and D3.
- Bibble Pro 4.1 now supports the D60 and adds lens calbiration for additional lenses.
- Pixelmator 1.2 adds Curves, color balance, new selection and grid tools.
D300 To Go Table of Contents
Apr 22--As requested by some, here's the TOC for the D300 To Go. As I noted on a few fora, the reason it isn't in the final printed version has to do with page count; books get produced in 16-page increments, and that next increment pushed the size and weight into a different category for shipping.
D300 Guide: Good News and Bad
Apr 19 (updated)--Short version: all orders on file were shipped on April 18 or 20th. However, there was a PayPal database issue for orders placed during a short time period on March 17th that didn't supply me with some of the orders. If you haven't received your order, please send me your PayPal receipt # or transaction ID via email so that I can look it up and I'll fix the problem.
The Buzz
Apr 19--Current rumors out of Japan have Nikon introducing the D90, D3x, plus lenses, in the second week of June. I'm tightening my D90 (or whatever they decide to call it) prediction date to between May 12th and June 16th.
Archived Front Page News and Articles
Archived 2008 byThom comments and news
Archived
2007 byThom comments and news
Archived pre-2007 byThom comments and news
Nikon announcements summary 2001-2008
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Serengeti Sunset. Ricoh GX-100 DNG converted in Photoshop.