From Canon's latest financial reports, it seems the company is having no trouble whatsoever shifting all those 30Ds and Digital Rebels.
Canon Inc. reported a 16 percent jump in quarterly profit and a record annual profit for the seventh straight year amid strong sales of its digital cameras, copiers and printers.
Canon's group net profit for the fourth quarter totaled 125.6 billion yen (US$1 billion), up from 108 billion yen the same period in 2005, the company said Monday.
Quarterly sales climbed 8.6 percent to 1.2 trillion yen (US$9.9 billion) from 1.1 trillion yen the previous year.
What I found noteworthy was the following passage.
By sector for the October-December quarter, camera sales surged nearly 17 percent on year, while sales of copying machines and other office imaging products rose about 7 percent. Laser beam printers and other computer peripherals jumped 10 percent from a year earlier.
In other words, the chief driver of Canon's profit growth is its camera department, and almost certainly the DSLR producing segment in particular. To give you an idea of how powerful a revenue generator this is, consider the following:
Canon is forecasting an eighth straight record year for 2007, projecting net profit of 495 billion yen (US$4.1 billion) on 4.45 trillion yen (US$36.5 billion) in sales.
All those enthusiasts buying "L glass" in (usually vain) hopes of someday going "full frame" adds up to quite a tidy sum. Not quite Microsoftian levels of profitability, but then again, Canon doesn't have a monopoly (thank goodness). If I were a Canon user, I'd thank my stars every day that Nikon existed to provide the only serious challenge to this behemoth of a company.
PS: To understand something about the reality behind all the "going full frame" talk so popular amongst Canon DSLR buyers, I suggest reading this blog post by Terry Chay. Most of the "full frame" talkers will never make the move, for the simple reason that the economics of semiconductor manufacturing simply won't let Canon provide full-frame cameras at a price most amateurs are willing to pay. Nikon knows what its doing by releasing the D40, even if I don't like it: the "one camera body and two cheap zoom lenses" bottom end of the market is where most of the money is, not in providing a marginally profitable camera like the 5D which only cannibalizes 1DS Mark II sales, and I'm certain Canon's 350D/400D models generate 90% or more of the profits from its DSLR operations.
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