August 10, 2005 – According to a report released yesterday by Japan’s Camera and Imaging Products Association, Japanese digital camera manufacturers are expected to see sales rise by 8.4 percent this year compared with previous estimates of 21 percent.
Worldwide sales of digital cameras by Japanese manufactures, including Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus and others, will likely total 64.8 million units this year, the association said. Japanese manufacturers shipped 59.8 million digital cameras last year, with 37.7 percent sales growth over two years ago.
According to the report, global shipments of digital cameras totaled 27.9 million units for the six months that ended June 30, a 5.5 percent increase over the same period last year. At the current sales pace, Japanese manufacturers are not expected to meet this year’s estimate of 72.2 million units sold.
Sales in Japan are also slipping. The industry group expects sales to fall 1.7 percent this year, a first for the Japanese digital camera market. According to the report, the decline can be attributed to the large number of Japanese homes that already own digital cameras and are not shopping for new ones.
