Is Nikon beginning a 'Death Spiral'?

[Didereaux]

Nikon recently announced an across the board price increase of a whopping 18%. What is behind this. The industry is in the midst of a very strong competitive phase with several manufacturers stepping up their product lines in both quantity and more improtantly quality. Sigma, Tamron, Pentax, SONY!

Nikon not to long ago dropped producing their own sensors in favor of buying from Sony. Sony at the same time began its massive surge into the camera market with its advanced senser designs used in the A7's. Now Sony's business practices in the past have not been very kind to competitors. Nikon is a competitor...do you suppose Sony might be putting the squeeze on Nikon? Nikon is no longer between a rock and a hard place it has been squashed all over the hard place by the big rock. It has no other place to go for sensors of high quality.

My opinion is that Nikon's future is not bright.

 

[jaomul]

It wasn't an across the board rise. It was mainly lenses and accessories. They cited rising costs and currency etc.

I don't know. There is a lot of competition there, but I can't imagine Sony, olly etc won't follow suit and raise prices if they are already competitive, as they'll be feeling the pinch also.

Any company is better selling less at a profit than more at a loss I suppose

 

[pixmedic]

looks like i made the switch just in time!
its very obvious to anyone who knows anything that Nikon is clearly circling the drain due to not listening to Thom Hogans advice all these years and following his suggestions to the letter! If only Nikon had made Thom chairman of the board, they would have long since destroyed all other competition and become a DSLR superpower!

 

[jcdeboever]

Supply and demand. Cell phones have changed everything.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[astroNikon]

Nikon differs from SONY and Canon, Samsung etc in that they are mainly an "imaging" company, having companies directly related to systems that are related to imaging - cameras, surveying, medical, eyeglass lenses, gov't, etc. ==> Nikon | Corporate Information | Nikon Group Companies

whereas we know SONY and Canon are in multiple other different markets.
SONY has the sensor market from Nikon, which means that Nikon has a FIXED cost of sensors that they cannot alter. When they made their own sensors they could streamline manufacturing to lower costs etc except for the fact that they supplied mainly themselves which was another fixed market. Thus it made sense to outsource that internal supply to SONY who made better sensors and probably lower cost to their own manufacturing.

Compared to Canon who probably sell thier sensors to other companies and use their own internally, so their sensor costs are supports by more than just them camera industry. So I don't see canon outsourcing their sensor production any time soon.

What Nikon really seems to lack is across the board advertising. And good advertising not like "I AM whatever" ... think of when Canon released the Rebel camera .. it was hocked in ads print and TV by Andre Agassi. Now Canon is using Sharapova.

Nikon's advertising is failing them if you ask me.
They need to step that up to increase market share, of what is left from cell phones.

Ashton Kutcher as a spokesperson was a fail too, but their V1s weren't much of a product either.

 

[Designer]

What might be perceived by some as the beginnings of a "death spiral" might also be a simple repositioning. Too early to see any pattern here, IMO.

 

[Dao]

I believe this is one of the reason behind Canon DSLR technology. The Canon marketing team did a much better job to maintain their dominant in the DSLR market especially the lower end DSLR which is where the money goes.

As a result, there is no reason for Canon to put all the good stuff in their products. Can Canon use a better sensor in their camera? Of course, but why? They already out sell their competitors so why make that changes to lower their profit margin.

In their home market in 2015, according to bcnranking.jp , Canon took 56% while Nikon is 36.7% and Ricoh is only 6.7%. Based on the past result, the worldwide market share was still lead by Canon for many years.

I think Nikon world wide marketing teams really need to step up and help gain more market share. The more the Nikon gain in market share, the better the cameras they produce. When Canon feel the pressure, I am sure they will make some drastic change in the products.

 

[Didereaux]

It wasn't an across the board rise. It was mainly lenses and accessories. They cited rising costs and currency etc.

I don't know. There is a lot of competition there, but I can't imagine Sony, olly etc won't follow suit and raise prices if they are already competitive, as they'll be feeling the pinch also.

Any company is better selling less at a profit than more at a loss I suppose

Canon, Sony, Sigma, Tamron, Pentax, Panasonic ALL face the same issues of currency and costs. In a competitive market you DO NOT raise prices unilaterally! It is business suicide.

 

[JoeW]

I'm a longtime Nikon user. I just liked the ergonomics. I can understand why someone would use Canon. Or Sony. I started out using Yashica actually. So it's kind of funny to me how the passion about the Nikon-Canon war among supporters colors one's perception.

Here's the deal: the Japanese government is devaluing their yen. Which means that b/c the currency is worth less, they have to raise prices to get the same value they had before. Oh, you say that many of the lens are made in China? Well, the Chinese economic issues have had ripple effects on other economies (especially in Asia, and even in the US stock market).

Nikon's pricing decisions are aimed primarily at lens sold in Japan (though I believe there are some other price increases in the UK...the announcement said Japan). A range of other Japanese and Asian companies outside of photography are doing exactly the same thing. I even read speculation that Canon was considering a price increase.

 

[Derrel]

Waiting patiently for the next Sigma d-slr release, will sell maybe 4,500 units world-wide! Waiting patiently for the new Tamron FF d-slr! Oh, wait, the phantom competitors you listed...do not compete in the space...

Where are these price hikes? In Canada, where their dollar has sunk like a stone. And in the Japan market.

Throwing around incorrect phrases like "across the board price hike" is irresponsible.

 

[pixmedic]

Waiting patiently for the next Sigma d-slr release, will sell maybe 4,500 units world-wide! Waiting patiently for the new Tamron FF d-slr!

Where are these price hikes? In Canada, where their dollar has sunk like a stone. And in the Japan market.

Yongnuo FF DSLR.

 

[Didereaux]

I'm a longtime Nikon user. I just liked the ergonomics. I can understand why someone would use Canon. Or Sony. I started out using Yashica actually. So it's kind of funny to me how the passion about the Nikon-Canon war among supporters colors one's perception.

Here's the deal: the Japanese government is devaluing their yen. Which means that b/c the currency is worth less, they have to raise prices to get the same value they had before. Oh, you say that many of the lens are made in China? Well, the Chinese economic issues have had ripple effects on other economies (especially in Asia, and even in the US stock market).

Nikon's pricing decisions are aimed primarily at lens sold in Japan (though I believe there are some other price increases in the UK...the announcement said Japan). A range of other Japanese and Asian companies outside of photography are doing exactly the same thing. I even read speculation that Canon was considering a price increase.

No Canon vs Nikon meant in this post. I too began with Nikon and used it for almost 20 years before quitting photos. Then when I went back because the wife got interested the best used deal at the time was a Canon. So no brand bias with me...and oh yeah I still have my Pentax K1000 I used for astronomy.

 

[Derrel]

Waiting patiently for the next Sigma d-slr release, will sell maybe 4,500 units world-wide! Waiting patiently for the new Tamron FF d-slr!

Where are these price hikes? In Canada, where their dollar has sunk like a stone. And in the Japan market.

Yongnuo FF DSLR.

Yessssssss! The Yongnuo WTF, the FX d-slr that's priced at $129, works most of the time, for most people! WTF allegedly stands for Wireless Transfer Files...

 

[Didereaux]

Waiting patiently for the next Sigma d-slr release, will sell maybe 4,500 units world-wide! Waiting patiently for the new Tamron FF d-slr!

Where are these price hikes? In Canada, where their dollar has sunk like a stone. And in the Japan market.

Yongnuo FF DSLR.

Yessssssss! The Yongnuo WTF, the FX d-slr that's priced at $129, works most of the time, for most people! WTF allegedly stands for Wireless Transfer Files...

c'mpn Derrel/ that was funny but you're veering the thread!

 

[runnah]

Nikon recently announced an across the board price increase of a whopping 18%. What is behind this. The industry is in the midst of a very strong competitive phase with several manufacturers stepping up their product lines in both quantity and more improtantly quality. Sigma, Tamron, Pentax, SONY!

Nikon not to long ago dropped producing their own sensors in favor of buying from Sony. Sony at the same time began its massive surge into the camera market with its advanced senser designs used in the A7's. Now Sony's business practices in the past have not been very kind to competitors. Nikon is a competitor...do you suppose Sony might be putting the squeeze on Nikon? Nikon is no longer between a rock and a hard place it has been squashed all over the hard place by the big rock. It has no other place to go for sensors of high quality.

My opinion is that Nikon's future is not bright.

Its actually a good move to buy sensors from Sony. Not only are you saving millions on R&D you are also saving on manufacture costs. Sure Sony could squeeze them a bit on price but why would they want to piss off a good customer?