Sony Alpha 100 DSLR Sells Well in Japan

The Sony guys expected just 10% of the global market for this year, but when the initial figures in Tokyo showed 21% in July and 19% in August, their optimism soared.

Bloomberg has announced that Sony’s Alpha 100 DSLR, which debuted in Tokyo on July 21, had a 21.6 percent share in that month and a 19 percent share in the three weeks to August 20, taking a sizable chunk off Canon’s and Nikon’s market shares.

But this is partly because the dominant camera makers did not yet have their new models at that time. With the entry of the Alpha 100 DSLR, Canon’s market share fell to 33.3 percent in July from 51.6 percent in the previous month. Nikon’s dropped to 27.4 percent, from 32.6 percent.

Overall ranking still showed Canon at number one, Nikon at number two and Sony at number 3. Camera & Imaging Products Association forecasts digital camera shipments to rise to 67.3 million units in 2006, up 4 percent from last year. Digital SLR shipments are expected to lead the increase, with a 23 percent gain from a year earlier, and reach 4.7 million units.

Below are the Bloomberg figures in Tokyo for June and July 2006:

Japan Digital SLR Market Share by Unit Sales

Vendor July June
Canon 33.3% 51.6%
Nikon 27.4% 32.6%
Sony 21.6% 2.3%
Pentax 14.0% 7.6%
Olympus 2.8% 4.8%
Matsushita 0.8% 0.1%

See the full report at Bloomberg.com.

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