Canon 2Q Financials Released: Canon now #1 in mirrorless in Japan.

Canon released their financials today.  For our concern we look at what was said about Cameras in the imaging department;

For ILCs, the rate of market contraction slowed as we entered the second quarter. This reflects the stimulation of demand through the launch of new products, both by competitors and ourselves. Against this backdrop, we managed 1.38 million in unit sales, a decline of 3% compared to last year. In the second quarter, sales were driven by the EOS M50, a strategically positioned mirrorless camera. Despite being an entry-class model, it incorporates features found in more advanced cameras while delivering easy operation for beginners. Through this, we are bringing new users into our ILC ecosystem.

Through the launch of these types of new products, for the first half, we have secured the top market share position for mirrorless cameras in Japan and are steadily increasing our market share position in other regions.

Through the launch of these types of new products, for the first half, we have secured the top market share position for mirrorless cameras in Japan and are steadily increasing our market share position in other regions.

For the second half of this year, in order to reach a broader range of customers, we will implement our plan to aggressively use social media in our marketing as a way to cultivate new users.

Additionally, we will strengthen our promotional activities targeting advanced amateurs, a growing segment of the market. At the same time, we will work to further strengthen our lineup, launching new products in the second half of this year.

From a profit perspective, we will work to further reduce costs through the acceleration of automation at domestic plants and the promotion of in-house production, including production equipment itself. At the same time, we will thoroughly reduce operating expenses. Through these measures, we will work to effect improvement in profitability from the second half on.

The big news from this announcement is that Canon claims to have managed to eclipse Olympus as the #1 mirrorless supplier in Japan.  This really doesn't come as a surprise to us, we have been watching BCN ranking and have seen Canon steadily selling the M50 as the top selling mirrorless in Japan for over 4 months now.

I guess Canon knew what they were doing with the EOS-M50 even though the camera was put down by the more vocal enthusiasts as being inadequate.

Things are not so rosy when you look at the imaging system financials with operating profit, and sales by value and by unit both down compared to the second quarter 2018.  Canon is still projecting over 5 million units sold for the year with a decrease of 4.4% units from 2017, still in line with their original forcast for the year.  This would see Canon sell around 5.2 million units for the 2018 (projected).  Certainly increased pressure from Sony, and also rumors of Nikon launching a new full frame mount, and even uncertainty about Canon's own plans for full frame mirorrless and if the EF mount becomes orphaned has led to some softening of sales.  Hopefully the picture will become clearer around Photokina this year.

What is certainly true, and has been now for the last 6-8 quarter reports, is that the EF-M is the new darling the imaging division, and Canon moving to #1 in domestic marketshare should worry all the mirrorless companies.