Sony Aims For Quarter Share of DSLR Market

Following Konica Minolta Holding Inc.'s announcement of withdrawal from the arena of the imaging business and an agreement to transfer Konica Minolta's assets related to R&D as well as manufacturing of DSLRs to Sony Corp., an official of Sony said on Jan. 20 it would aim for at least a quarter of share in the DSLR camera market in a few years, reports PEN News Weekly.

Sony commands the second-largest share of the digicam market after Canon, but its operations have been focused mainly on compact models, missing lucrative DSLRs and interchangeable lenses to warrant a push. Canon and Nikon dominate the DSLR market with a combined market share of nearly 90 percent.

Through acquisition of the right to use the Konica Minolta's Alpha/Maxxum mount system, access to manufacturing/designing technology and R&D/manufacturing assets (though Konica Minolta retains its patents), Sony plans a big push to high-end digicam market including DSLRs, to chip away at Canon's dominant market position, says PEN News Weekly.

Yutaka Nakagawa, president of Sony's digital imaging business group, told reporters that the company "will target for at least 20-25 percent of the world digicam market, and even a higher share as far as DSLRs are concerned, by making the most of its advantage," ie., its capability to make key devices such as CCDs, lenses and LCDs. He continued: "Because there are only a few players in the DSLR market, we would like to grab an even bigger market share. We wish to nurture our DSLR segment to a business that accounts for more than 20 percent of our total revenue from digicam sales in the near future."

Sony plans to roll out its first high-end DSLR model jointly developed with Konica Minolta this summer. The company plans to entrust manufacture of its DSLRs to Konica Minolta's Malaysian company through capital participation. A certain number of designers and engineers may be transferred from Konica Minolta to Sony, but details are not disclosed, says PEN News Weekly. (Source: Photo Marketing Association's Newsline International)