Business News: Nikon

[caero]

Mon Aug 8, 2:27 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nikon Corp. said on Monday its quarterly operating profit more than quadrupled, helped by strong sales of high-end digital cameras, and it raised its forecast for the full year.

Nikon, the world's second-largest maker of digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras, said group operating profit totaled 13.94 billion yen ($124 million) in the April-June first quarter, up from a profit of 3.13 billion yen in the year-ago period.

Earnings at Nikon have been boosted by robust demand for digital SLR cameras and the interchangeable lenses used with them, as well as improved profitability in its stepper and instruments divisions.

Boosting digital SLR sales has been key to Nikon's strategy of shifting away from intense price competition at the low end of the camera market. Digital SLRs yield fatter margins and allow Nikon to leverage its lens technology and long history in film SLRs.

Healthy sales of digital SLRs also helped industry leader Canon Inc. to a higher profit in the latest quarter.

Nikon, which is also the world's second-largest maker of steppers after Dutch-based ASML, raised its full year forecast for group operating profit to 36 billion yen, 18 percent higher than last year's 30.5 billion yen. It had previously forecast 33 billion yen for the full year to March.

Canon is the world's third-biggest producer of steppers, which are used to etch circuitry onto chips.

Prior to the announcement, shares of Nikon closed up 1.7 percent at 1,248 yen. Japan's precision machines subindex IPRCS. fell 0.01 percent.

Nikon shares gained 2 percent in April-June, while the subindex was virtually flat.

Nikon said in May it expected unit sales of chip steppers to fall 4 percent to 185 in 2005/06, although it expected demand to pick up in the October-March second half due to an anticipated upturn in the semiconductor cycle. ($1=112.38 Yen)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050808/bs_nm/tech_japan_nikon_dc

Nice going Nikon!

I hope this increased focus on DSLR technology results in a lot of new lenses and stuff for all of us Nikonians

 

[MontyDog]

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

 

[sarhento]

I hope Nikon doesn't totally abandon the low-end segment of the camera market as that's where future DSLR users will be coming from.

 

[helmet155]

more like Nikon will be abandoning the DSLR market in favor of the P&S crowd!

 

[allen_a_george]

I'd really like to see the D50 do well. Unfortunately I think that Canon's entries are outgunning the Nikon ones in the marketplace.

In Canada at least, the Rebel XT and the D50 are very close in price. But I've witnessed the following sequence of events a couple of times:

Salesperson: Here's D50 & Rebel XT
...
...
Person: Oh - I see that the Rebel XT has 8MP - how much does the D50 have?

:~(

From then on it's usually a lost cause.

I bought the D70 because of ergonomics and build quality. But for quite a few people, MP/$ is a trump factor.

Cheers,
Allen

 

[allen_a_george]

They're not necessarily wrong BTW. I think

a) D50 should be a little more cheaper

OR

b) Nikon should have put in an 8MP chip

 

[TOF guy]

I'd really like to see the D50 do well. Unfortunately I think that Canon's entries are outgunning the Nikon ones in the marketplace.

In Canada at least, the Rebel XT and the D50 are very close in price. But I've witnessed the following sequence of events a couple of times:

Salesperson: Here's D50 & Rebel XT
...
...
Person: Oh - I see that the Rebel XT has 8MP - how much does the D50 have?

:~(

From then on it's usually a lost cause.

I bought the D70 because of ergonomics and build quality. But for quite a few people, MP/$ is a trump factor.

Cheers,
Allen

I totally agree with you. Most people ask me how many pixels does my D70 have, not how is image quality, autofocusing, metering, responsiveness, ..., whatever, just pixels.

It is a serious marketing issue. Notice that on dpreview the D50 does not seem to get people's attention. In fact the new Minolta 5D attracts more attention (6 MPs, but antishake system makes up for the pixel difference). Nikon has just started the low end of the market with a camera that is facing the 350XT competition, and the D50 won't be replaced for at least 2 years. Not good.

The D200 better be a 20D killer camera !

Thierry