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News and commentary of interest to Nikon and Nikon F-mount users
Nikon Financial Results for Third Quarter
Feb 4 (news and commentary)--Nikon's third quarter financial results have been announced, and the news, as expected, is mixed.
For the year so far, Nikon sales are down 16% from the year prior, and the company is now reporting a loss. Hidden in that bad news is that this year's third quarter is better than last year's (hard no to be, given that the Great Recession was hitting about its heaviest during that period last fiscal year). The Precision division (semiconductor equipment) continues to collapse, with year-to-year comparison now off 39%. That, of course means that the Imaging division (cameras and lenses) is doing better, with sales off 9% and profits off only 4% from the previous year-to-date (three quarters).
Indeed, one of Nikon's bullet points for the quarter was that DSLRs, lenses, and compact cameras all achieved their highest single quarter volume to date: 1.2m DSLRs, 1.75m lenses, and 4.1m compact cameras were "sold" in the last three months of 2009. For the full fiscal year (ends March 31, 2010) Nikon expects to sell 3.5m DSLRs (35% of the global market), 5.1m lenses (32% of the global market), and 11.5m compact cameras (11.7% of the global market). Japan is now down to 12% of Nikon Imaging sales, the US down to 34%, Europe holding steady at 32%, with the remainder being Asia (22%). Imaging's percentage of the overall company sales continues to grow, having risen to 76% in the three quarters so far (but expected to drop back to 73% for the full year).
R&D expenses as a percentage of sales is still increasing (and has been for most of the decade), though the overall spending has dropped a bit (about 4% year-to-year).
Nikon's current estimate for currency exchange is 90-94 yen to the dollar, 130-133 yen to the Euro (the actual rate is at about 91 and 127 as I write this).
Overall, Nikon's continued strong performance in Imaging is driving the company. The good news is that this performance currently shows little signs of weakening. On the other hand, Nikon can't afford to make significant mistakes with cameras and lenses in the coming months, as doing so would send the financial picture back into the red (they predict a profit for the coming year).
Looking beyond the numbers looking for clues to the coming quarter, Nikon did not change their estimates for camera, lens, or Coolpix sales in the current quarter. That pretty much means that nothing that's been announced (see next story) or will be announced shortly is going to have a meaningful impact on this year's financials. Despite selling 1.2m DSLRs last quarter, Nikon currently expects to sell only 700k DSLRs this quarter. Note the the Coolpix models announced below only have a couple that ship in March. If Nikon expects to beat their 2010 fiscal year numbers they just posted in 2011, and every indication is that they do, that means that we've got quite a few new products coming in the next two quarters.
Yawn
Feb 3 (news and commentary)--Sorry for the late coverage, but we had equipment issues here at Officia de byThom that needed a lot of attending to today.
So, Nikon's first 2010 announcement: the expected Coolpix refresh. Here in the US we get 7 new models:
- S8000: 14mp, 30-300mm (10x) zoom, 3" 921k dot LCD, 720P/30, VR, US$299, black, red, bronze, silver.
- S6000: 14mp, 28-196mm (7x) zoom, 2.7" 230k dot LCD, VR, US$249, silver, red, black, or bronze.
- S4000: 12mp, 27-108mm (4x) zoom, 3" 460k dot LCD, 720P/24, VR, US$199, black, silver, red, pink, plum.
- S3000: 12mp, 27-108mm (4x) zoom, 2.7" 230k dot LCD, VGA movie/30, VR, US$149, silver, black, plum, blue, green, orange.
- P100: 10.3mp backside illuminated sensor, 26-678mm (26x) zoom, 3" 460k dot LCD, 1080P/30, multiple VR, US$399, black only.
- L110: 12mp, 28-420mm (15x) zoom, 3" 460k dot LCD, 720P/30, dual VR, US$279, black, plum.
- L22: 12mp, 37-134mm (3.6x) zoom, 3" 230k dot LCD, VGA movie/30, US$129, silver, black, blue, plum.
The sarcastic crowd would say: more numbers in the model names, some heavy anorexia in the body size coupled with big zooms that stick way out, plus more colors.
More seriously: it's nice to see BSS (best shot selector) making a wide appearance again, and Nikon is claiming fast startup and focus. The back side illuminated sensor makes its way into the performance line (it was badly needed), and Nikon seems to still be playing the "more pixels" game at the low end of their lineup. There's a lot of mumbo jumbo in the press releases about low light ability, but we need to see the cameras in action at high ISO values before we get too excited about that. I'll be very surprised if any of these cameras can match a Canon S90.
What's interesting are some of the sub-choices: more 720P movie capabilities, though mostly at 30 fps, with the P100 becoming Nikon's first 1080P camera! Yes, that seems strange, but it's mostly due to sensors and the base designs that Nikon is using. The dot-pitch on the LCDs is all over the board, but I suspect that is attempts at hitting price points while still trying to use as few parts as possible.
I have to say, though, for a line that's labeled "Style," I'm just not seeing it on Nikon's new compacts. If anything, the overly large lettering on the casing around the lens on the two high-end models looks cheap to me. Also, the last time I looked, "rectangular box" was the most basic shape I could pull up on my CAD program. Just because it's "slimmest in its class" doesn't mean much. Indeed, I suspect these new models have the same problem the Canon S90 has: you need a grip point on the front of the camera and don't have it.
Just a Reminder
The short articles on the front page of this site change as often as every couple of days, as little as once every two weeks. Right now, however, we're coming into a period where there's been rapid change. So if you're not checking the site often, be sure to check out the Archived 2009 link, below, as there may be a handful of items you missed. (Yes, I know about RSS. But I won't offer that until the site redesign is done.)
Archived Front Page News and Articles
Archived 2010 byThom comments and news
Archived 2009 byThom comments and news
Archived 2008 byThom comments and news
Archived
2007 byThom comments and news
Archived pre-2007 byThom comments and news
Nikon announcements summary 2001-2009
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