Nikon Profit Declines 23% on Lower Camera Prices
[Note: zoetmb rightly points out in the comments that these are overall Nikon Corp numbers, not specifically related to camera revenue. I hope to get the chance to review the entire filing over the next few days to attempt to glean some more information from our hermit company.]
Nikon Corp’s 1st quarter results are in and no one’s going to get a bonus.
Net income dropped to 18 billion yen ($166 million) in the three months ended June 30, from 23.4 billion yen a year earlier, Tokyo-based Nikon said in a statement today. Sales climbed 6.4 percent to 237.9 billion yen. …
Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, declined 21 percent to 28.7 billion yen.
The yen appreciated 17 percent against the dollar in the year ended June 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
They’re projecting that sales will go up a bit, but overall profits will go down. Maybe if they put out 10 more Coolpix’s…
This is the only camera store that NikonWatch trusts- never any hassle, gimmicks, or problems:


August 7th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I think your numbers are overall Nikon numbers, not numbers for photographic imaging. For imaging, Nikon beat their 1st quarter estimates and as a result, they have upped their 1st half estimates, but they have left their full year estimates as they were. This could indicate one of two things: either Nikon has no idea what their sales will be the 2nd half of their fiscal year and therefore doesn’t yet want to change the FY estimate -or- they expect April to June to be great and July through March 09 to suck. If the latter is the case, IMO that means there will be no new bodies before April of 09.
So Nikon sales were up, but strangely, it appears that Nikon market share is substantially down. Comparing Nikon numbers to CIPA Shipments, at the end of Nikon’s last fiscal year (March 08), Nikon achieved a 40.1% market share for DSLRs, 8.7% for point-and-shoots and 34.1% for lenses.
For the first quarter, DSLR share is down to 33.7%, Lens share is down to 9.3% but PP&S share is actually up!! to 9.3%. This indicates to me that in spite of all the hype, Canon is doing quite well.
At the end of this past fiscal year, Nikon was selling 1.44 lenses per body. That’s down to 1.38 for the first quarter. CIPA industry average for the first quarter is 1.61.
August 8th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Sorry, there’s a typo above.
This paragraph:
For the first quarter, DSLR share is down to 33.7%, Lens share is down to 9.3% but PP&S share is actually up!! to 9.3%. This indicates to me that in spite of all the hype, Canon is doing quite well.
Should have read:
For the first quarter, DSLR share is down to 33.7%, Lens share is down to 28.9% but PP&S share is actually up!! to 9.3%. This indicates to me that in spite of all the hype, Canon is doing quite well.
August 11th, 2008 at 9:33 am
i won’t worry about shares.
they’re now intel’s exclusive partner. they’re going to sell lots more immersion scanners and that’s how you make the big money.