Price Increases?
Nikon Price Increases?
Well, we’re seeing a lot of chatter about price increases in February. Specific countries like Australia apparently are getting 15-20% increases soon, the UK has also been mentioned. I haven’t seen anything solid on the US though.
But here’s the thing- the economy’s in toilet right now and it’s not going to climb out any time soon and the Yen’s on the rise. Bad economy means fewer sales, products produced with a strong Yen mean they’re pricier for every other currency, thus higher prices and fewer sales.
Nikon, rightly, expects to do sell less product and do worse than they have during the last few years, so they’ve laid off workers. Laying off workers means they’re combating selling less product. I’d expect to see more layoffs in the future.
But notice that many of their consumer-grade products and lenses are made in China and Thailand. China has a fixed currency exchange rate which keeps it artificially low and Thailand’s Baht has moved down substantially vs the Yen too. So, for the cameras at least, the strength of the Yen should have less an impact than you would expect.
This means they’re combating both a stronger yen and few sales.
So predictions: I would be a bit surprised to see significant price hikes for countries whose currency hasn’t declined a lot vs the Yen (that would exclude Australia), and I’d be just as surprised to see a world-wide increase in the price of the D3x (as I’ve seen a lot of chatter about).
The D3x is already too pricey, and unless it’s been flying off the shelves, there’s no reason I can see to make it more expensive. So I’m betting that the prices (in the US anyway) for the D3x will stay the same.
But you know what they say and predicting the future- you only do it if you want to prove yourself a fool…