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March 20, 2006

Nikon Bullish on '07 Camera Shipments

Nikon's projections for 2007 include a 30% rise in digital SLR shipments , but sees a fight for the heavily-contested entry-level market.

Managing Director Makoto Kimura sees revisions neccessary in marketing and selling entry-level models under USD1000, but is betting on significant growth to help boost revenue. This same competitive market segment cost Konica-Minolta and Kyocera their place in the imaging industry.

Nikon has already made sizable increases in their imaging division, with a 28 percent boost in R&D to 13.2B Yen ending in March of 2005. Overall, camera R&D represented over 40% of the company's overall research expenses.

Kimura acknowledges that the lifecycle of a typical DSLR has dropped to about 1.5 years versus 3 for an equivalent film model, so turnover is expected to fuel part of the coming wave of growth. Nikon has already implemented many cost-savings in order to remain competitive, having consolidated manufacturing lines to two plants; one in Thailand for consumer models and the other in Japan for pro versions. In addition, camera models now share a wide common base of parts and Nikon has increased parts procurement to achieve further cost-savings.

Posted by covey22 at March 20, 2006 5:20 AM