Why is the 20 17 camera market so dull?

For us mass consumers, the double eleven has just passed, and the double twelve is coming again. In principle, the camera industry should be thriving. In fact, according to the data released by CIPA, the global digital camera market has gone through ten months of sideways consolidation without ups and downs. For the public, the camera market has lost its excitement. There is neither a peak that can stimulate sales, nor a trough in which sales fall. Why is the digital camera market of 20 17 so dull? For ordinary consumers, what have we got this year? Today, we will talk about how the market of 20 17 digital cameras developed from the perspective of marketing and product strategy.

Insufficient consumption power through appearances has slowed down the development of the industry.

The sales volume of digital cameras is actually a hidden data. Although each company will announce its sales status in various press conferences or annual reports, the core data of how many cameras are sold is always the core data that only the manufacturers know. However, every year, CIPA Association publishes global camera sales data, which shows that camera sales in 20 17 years are not as good as expected, and there has been a continuous sideways development. From 65438+ 10 to 65438+ 10, although it did not decrease, it did not increase, so the time of price adjustment and new product release did not affect the sales situation.

Before 20 17 and during 10, the global sales of digital cameras did not increase or decrease significantly, indicating that the industry trend did not stimulate the market much.

The attractiveness of new camera products and technological updates to consumers is declining.

In 20 17 years, there were actually many breakthroughs in the high-end technology of the camera industry. In terms of technology and products, 20 17 is more interesting than 20 16. However, from the actual performance, in 20 17 years, neither new technology nor new products attracted consumers' interest, and there were few entry-level new products, and high-end models continued to move to the price line.

Explosive products, especially entry-level SLR, are often the products of previous generations.

With the stability of camera parameters, the upgrade range of products is not large now, especially for entry-level products. Several generations of products often have similar performance and relatively stable imaging performance. Therefore, whether it is the sales situation of Double Eleven or the sales situation of offline stores, there are often a large number of previous generation products, especially the entry-level series.

Consumer demand for equipment performance has declined.

For this problem, the core problem still lies in the camera development itself. The previous professional field of photography, whether it is an ordinary card machine or a professional SLR camera, is the only product of photography. But nowadays, although mobile phone photography still can't shake professional cameras, camera products are not the only shooting equipment for consumers.

Once, the camera was the only way to shoot, but now there are many substitutes for cameras, and mobile phone photography is also developing rapidly.

The development of pixels is slow, and the shooting quality of cameras, especially the resolution performance, has exceeded people's demand for photos. The mainstream demand of people is still sharing and printing, so the performance of cameras is often surplus, which also slows down the update speed of cameras in recent two years, and the product update cycle of consumers becomes longer.

Manufacturers have changed from pursuing sales to pursuing profits.

For manufacturers, it is obvious that manufacturers are no longer pursuing price wars. The era of dumping goods at low prices has gone away from us. Both manufacturers and distributors pay more attention to the profit performance of products. Generally speaking, they strive to earn higher profits on a single product. Take Nikon as an example. Nikon's financial reports in recent quarters show that although Nikon's sales are declining, its profit value is rising.

Camera manufacturers have long passed the era of burning money and spelling technology, and now many manufacturers are considering how to earn high profit margins.

The behavior of other manufacturers can also be seen that although volume is still the main theme of camera sales, everyone pays more attention to the sales of high-end products than before, and major manufacturers are also raising the price of cameras simultaneously. High profit and high added value are another major consideration for major manufacturers at this stage, and the profit rate is even more important in the case of the global digital camera market decline.

Global sales have risen instead of falling, but the Asian market has performed well.

In fact, it is not a good thing that the global sales volume of 20 17 is not rising but falling. This shows that the development of the camera industry tends to be stable and slow, and the smaller the fluctuation, the less the industry dynamics will stimulate consumers. Here, we briefly analyze the needs of different consumers.

The needs of Europeans and Asians are different, and the needs of European and American consumers are more practical.

Compared with the underperforming international markets, the sales in Asian markets, especially in China, are obviously much better. Although we can't get specific data, such as specific sales or manufacturers' reports, from the data of press conferences and communication meetings of various manufacturers we attended, in 20 17, the sales of major domestic camera manufacturers exceeded expectations, and some manufacturers and some product lines even exceeded expectations.

Asians like high-end models and miniature cameras.

The camera purchase patterns of Europeans and Americans and Asians are slightly different. For Asia, especially China, consumer demand is more extreme. On the one hand, the pursuit of high-end products is increasingly strong, so that 1DX2/D5/A9 and other models have a fairly high purchase volume among ordinary consumers in Asia. On the other hand, the price factor is more attractive in the Asian market, and low-priced products are more likely to fight their way out. For European and American consumers, compared with Asian users, consumption is more practical, and it is rare for street users to hold large SLR. European and American users prefer light card machines or small SLR, so the consumption desire of European and American consumer groups is generally low, and impulse consumption is relatively small.

SLR continues to slide. Asians only love micro-cameras.

In terms of specific product consumption types, we should emphasize the development of interchangeable lens cameras here. Around 20 15 years, the sales volume in mirrorless cameras was only about 10% of the sales volume of interchangeable lenses, but by 20 17 years, the sales volume in mirrorless cameras had already accounted for 36% of the sales volume of interchangeable lenses.

The sales volume of interchangeable lenses has hardly changed from March to 10.

According to the specific data of June 5438+ 10, the sales of mirrorless cameras have accounted for 36% of lens sales.

For the global camera market, the total sales volume of interchangeable lens cameras has remained stable in the past seven months, but it can be clearly seen that the sales volume of SLR production lines is declining, but the sales volume of micro-single products continues to rise, which largely compensates for the decline in sales of SLR and card machines.

Micro-singles are not sought after in the world, but in Asia, especially in China and Japan, the sales of micro-singles continue to rise.

From the perspective of the global market, Asia is the main battlefield of micro-single. Take China as an example. Consumers in China just started to contact micro-orders in the era of Sony Milkshake, and now consumers have changed from "which brand of camera to buy" to "recommending a reliable micro-order". Micro-single camera represents portability and convenient operation, and has a deeper consumption base in mass photography.

It is precisely because of the great demand for micro-cameras in Asia that camera sales in Asia have maintained a good level under the general trend of global SLR camera sales decline. It can be said that micro-cameras have played an important role in promoting camera sales.

Why can't new products and technologies stimulate consumers?

Another question, although we mainly talk about the development of the camera market today, market sales cannot be separated from technological innovation. Although there are many new technologies in 20 17, it is not very stimulating to consumers. From the technical point of view: the combination of high pixel and high speed, 4K video specialization; It is the core technological progress of 20 17, but these two technologies are not attractive to everyday consumers.

The new technology of 20 17 has two main points: high pixel and high speed fusion; 4K video upgrade

Technically speaking, high pixel corresponds to scenery model and high speed corresponds to sports flagship model, but for ordinary consumers, it is enough to meet one of these two fields. Although the combination of these two functions is very happy for professional photographers, it is very happy for mass consumers. Maybe the original D8 10 or A7RII is more suitable for them. Although the combined model has stronger performance, it also brings about a sharp increase in price. For consumers, this model is more suitable for professional photographers than for home users and ordinary enthusiasts.

The fusion of high pixel and high speed is the main technical point of 20 17.

As for 4K video, although video is the next point of camera development, this function is still an exploration stage for consumers and manufacturers. But what is certain is that consumers' demand for 4K is not strong, and camera shooting video is a weak demand of consumers, which will not become the consideration of ordinary consumers for camera performance.

For video shooting, in fact, most consumers don't have much demand, and only a few professionals and users have video demand.

On the other hand, Asian users and European and American users have different habits in video shooting. Camera users in Europe and America have traditional video shooting needs, and home video recorders have been selling well in the European and American markets. European and American users also like to record their lives with videos, and this demand is still widespread today. Asian users do not rely on video recording, so the sales of cameras in Asia are generally higher than those of cameras. However, for cameras that shoot video, upgrading the video function is an inevitable step for cameras, but the effect of this action on sales volume seems to be still in the stage of vacillation and exploration, no matter which sales area it is in.

Looking ahead, it is difficult for the industry to reshuffle. Is it history for a hundred schools of thought to contend?

Today, I talked a lot about the reasons for poor market sales. Finally, talk about what stage the camera field will enter in the future.

The industry layout is difficult to shuffle, and the industry pattern has been formed.

At one time, the digital camera market was a market where a hundred schools of thought contended and a hundred flowers blossomed. There are more camera brands on the market for consumers to choose from. The current digital camera market is basically dominated by several manufacturers, and only old brands will decline, and few new brands will join.

At present, the camera industry market is weak, and the industry layout will not change greatly.

However, although in the mainline market, cameras and lenses will hardly change in a short time, there may still be new industry giants in the segmentation field. For example, in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, DJI has basically occupied the leading position in the industry, and began to develop into the surrounding areas of aerial photography, such as camera shooting.

In the future, camera sales are doomed to decline, and profit rate determines income.

It can be predicted that the total sales of the industry will continue to be flat or even decline. But for manufacturers, with the reduction of update frequency in each stage and the stability of product line, the profits of manufacturers will continue to increase. If from 2002 to 20 15, manufacturers will fight for the market by sales volume, then in the future, they must fight for profits by profit rate.

For example, future camera manufacturers will be more important than sales.

Increasing profit margin does not mean increasing prices. With the maturity of technology, there are more and more technologies in the camera industry, and the high-end technology of high-end products can be more easily decentralized to entry-level products, which is actually very helpful for saving costs. As the camera industry becomes more stable, the differentiation between high-end products and entry-level products will become more obvious. High-end products will fight for technology, and entry-level products need stable sales to ensure revenue. No matter what kind of differentiation, from the consumer's point of view, we will not see the price increase of entry-level products, nor will we see the price reduction of high-end products continue.

Looking back at 20 1720 18, the competition will be even more cruel.

The author believes that since 20 15, the camera industry has entered a new round of reshuffle and transformation, but this time it is more difficult than before. A series of events on 20 16 actually accelerated the changes in the industry. 20 17 we have seen the technological changes of many traditional image manufacturers. In 20 18 years, this change will continue to deepen and the industry competition will be more cruel. Once there is a mistake, it is likely to accelerate the elimination of brands and products. For consumers, the desire for camera consumption is still declining, but the market share of entry micro-orders will continue to rise. Although the status of professional products is hard to shake, the sales volume may decline with the price change.

At present, the camera industry is still in the recovery and recovery period after the trough. More new technologies and new products, although less irritating, can still drive market sales to a certain extent. In the future, consumers will actually have more choices when buying cameras. The year is approaching, I still hope there will be more surprises on 20 18!