# Panasonic scaling back?



## josephandrews222 (Mar 29, 2017)

https://www.dpreview.com/news/4882489366/panasonic-likely-to-scale-back-camera-division


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 29, 2017)

Point and shoot cameras are a dying breed. All cameras are hard to sell. Panasonic has been a marginal camera brand, as far as sales go (Not a comment on quality, just on sales), and has been overtaken in the Television sales to the point where they may have give that up. They held out with TV sets that no one wanted, and now find themselves way behind, ramping up LED Sets while LG is planning to bust the market wide open with OLED sets at competitive prices. With Samsung reeling from their Smartphone problems, and their leader in legal trouble, they may find themselves out of synch before long, but they are king of TV sales right now. However, people want those paper thin tv screens that they can hang on the wall and LG is pushing them. Expect them to start moving into the mass market. Samsung gave up on OLED sets and has invested billions in what may quickly become yesterday's technology.

A huge number of buyers who want something to go with their smartphone are buying entry level Canon DSLR's. This is squeezing the other camera makers out the door. Expect to see some relatively major brands pulling back or pulling out.

Even though Canon is taking a ever larger market share of camera sales, their overall sales and profits are falling. They have been investing big chunks of their profits into growth industries like Surveillance cameras and Medical Imaging. They have some pretty large cash reserves, so they can afford to buy into the top end of those markets. Expect a big chunk of Canon profits to come from those industries in the future.


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## Tugela (Mar 29, 2017)

DSLR sales are declining, but MILC sales are level, which means that Canon are not taking an ever larger share of the camera market. Other brands have better cameras than Canon in the fixed lens market. General consumers who want something better than their cell phones are buying enthusiast fixed lens cameras, not DSLRs, since those folk generally have no interest in multiple lenses. Point and shoots are dying EXCEPT the enthusiast models, which are still selling very well.

Panasonic are not scaling back their camera operations, they have simply reorganized. Their premier models do quite well.


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## slclick (Mar 29, 2017)

Panny makes some of the better MFT lenses, I hope they keep their relationship with Leica alive.


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## Mikehit (Mar 29, 2017)

Tugela said:


> DSLR sales are declining, but MILC sales are level, which means that Canon are not taking an ever larger share of the camera market.



I thought canon had the biggest share of interchangeable lens cameras (DSLR plus MILC) - can you explain more?. 



Tugela said:


> Other brands have better cameras than Canon in the fixed lens market. General consumers who want something better than their cell phones are buying enthusiast fixed lens cameras, not DSLRs, since those folk generally have no interest in multiple lenses. Point and shoots are dying EXCEPT the enthusiast models, which are still selling very well.



Maybe other manufacturers do make netter fixed lens but as far as I can tell current data shows that the non-phone fixed lens camera market is plummeting (replaced by phones) - the 'enthusiasts' who want something more than a phone are a small percentage so when you say 'selling very well' what do you mean?


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## neuroanatomist (Mar 29, 2017)

Tugela said:


> DSLR sales are declining, but MILC sales are level, which means that Canon are not taking an ever larger share of the camera market.



I guess you missed the fact that Canon _was_ #3 in MILC sales, and last year they moved #2 in MILC sales. It's no surprise, I know you and facts aren't very well acquainted.


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