[Leica] Camera Facts (Mostly OT but Interesting)

[Larry Kopitnik <kopitnil@marketingcomm.com>]

On Nikon's Japan website, downloadable as a pdf file, is the "Nikon 
Fact Book 2000." While most of it is, as would be expected, 
Nikon-related, there are some interesting general camera figures 
within it.

One chart shows total SLR sales from 1995 to 1999. These are sales 
for all companies, not just Nikon (figures from the Japan Camera 
Industry Association):

1995:  3,390,000
1996:  3,530,000
1997:  4,100,000
1998:  4,290,000
1999:  4,360,000

The chart shows Nikon's 1999 share as 20.9%. That would work out to 
911,240 Nikon SLRs sold in 1999. And Leica sold, what, 5000 to 6000 
R8s? A sobering comparison.

Interestingly, Leica's financial reports explain the R8's sales 
problems in part by saying (paraphrasing here; I don't have a pdf of 
a Leica report in front of me) that it's part of a declining market. 
Yet these figures show SLR sales increasing by a million units over 
the past five years.

Also interesting to look at are the sales of compact cameras, up 
since 1995 but down by over two million units compared to last year:

1995:  26,130,000
1996:  25,380,000
1997:  32,510,000
1998:  31,650,000
1999:  29,460,000

(Nikon's 1999 share of that market is 6.1%.)

The report also includes sales of digital cameras since 1997, 
including forecasts for 2000 and 2001:

1997:  2,120,000
1998:  3,170,000
1999:  5,090,000
2000 (forecast):  9,100,000
2001 (forecast):  12,000,000

(Nikon's 1999 share of the digital market was 6.4%.)

Another breakout is shipment of digital cameras by pixel count for 
the last two years:

1998
Less than one million pixels:  1,860,000
One million pixels and more:  1,310,000

1999
Less than one million pixels:  1,130,000
One to two million pixels:  2,310,000
Over two million pixels:  1,650,000