Numbers: Kodak is #1 but with a big asterisk
Kodak shipped/sold the most digital cameras in Q1 of 2005 in the USA market.
That is great news for Kodak who is trying to make a comeback and recover from the "downfall" of the film era.
Kodak has managed to push away Fuji and Olympus and become the favorite entry-level low-price P&S brand.
Perhaps the greed that led to the creation of the xD memory card is coming back to haunt Fuji and Olympus.
However, there is a big asterisk next to that
#1 spot.
Why?
Because the average Kodak camera and especially the best selling Kodak digital cameras are low priced especially when compared to
#2 and
#3 Canon and Sony. If for every $100 Kodak CX7300, Canon sells a $1000 350D/RebelXT and Sony sells a $400 P200, well you can see why there should be an asterisk. Same thing can be said for HP who doesn't even have a camera over $300 (apart from the "old" HP 945).
Q1 2005 numbers
===============
1. Kodak 900,000 [up 41% from Q1 2004] 20.4% vs 18.1%
2. Canon 850,000 [up 72% from Q1 2004] 19.3% vs 14.0%
3. Sony 800,000 [?] 18%
4. Olympus 480,000 [] 10.9% vs 12.7%
5. HP 7.5%
6. Fuji 6.8%
7. Nikon 5.7%
Annual results USA 2004
=======================
1. Kodak 4.88 million 21.9% vs 17.9% in 2003
2. Sony 4.33 million 19.4% vs 21.7%
Total in 2004: 22.3 million vs 16.4 in 2003. 2005 estimate: 27.3 million
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050509/digital_cameras.html?.v=3My predictions for 2005
=======================
* The new set of P&S Nikon Coolpixs seems to be priced competitively and is getting positive response. That along with the success of the three "versions" of the Nikon D70 should push Nikon higher. Even their "bijou" camera which is usually a "failure" [eg SQ, 3700] looks like a success story this time around (The S1 and S2)
* Canon can do nothing wrong it seems. The signs were there early last year of Canon domination and it sure is happening!
* Olympus is struggling across the board. Their traditional markets (entry level P&S and mid-range cameras) are struggling. Part of it may be xD, part of it maybe the change in buyer patterns - partly because of all the long zooms and high-end LiIon ultra-compacts. Once a leader in long zooms Olympus is now left behind with no new models and no image stabilization. The Stylus brand has not translated very well to digital. One "bright" spot may be the colorful Stylus Verve line.
* Fuji is also struggling but if they can get the F10 sensor/engine into other models, watch out!
