Japanese companies loosing interest according to Google Trend

I spent some time checking the performance of the Japanese camera manufacturers on Google Trend. And I noticed some clear tendency:

1) All Japanese camera manufacturers are getting less searches every year

2) On the contrary other electronic manufacturers like Apple and Samsung clearly surpassed them

3) Digital camera searches have dropped dramatically

Here is Apple outperforming them all:

Here is Samsung outperforming them all:

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Sony is the company that lost most of its presence on the web.

Even new chinese companies like DJI now make better than a traditional Japanese company like Olympus:

And overall searches for Digital Cameras dropped down dramatically after 2005-2006 and are now steady:

Here compared with the search of smartphone related terms:

 

So the pictures is quite clear: Japanese companies all failed to recognize the new digital revolution. Their digital camera market they relied on for decades has definitely become a very small niche in the electronic world. Apple and Samsung heavily invested in new tech like smartphones and won the game. New players like drone maker DJI quickly managed to become bigger than some of the japanese camera manufacturers.

The world has changed folks, and I am curious to see how things will be in five years from now. Will Japanese companies be able to survive and fight back?

The landscape will change with the new Nikon and Canon FF: How will Fuji-Olympus-Panasonic answer?

Nikon and Canon will soon announce their new Full Frame mirrorless system cameras. This will put a lot of pressure on Fuji’s X, and Olympus-Panasonic MFT system for multiple reasons:

1) FF mirrorless competition is likely to reduce prices of FF cameras and lenses

2) Canon and Nikon will spend a lot of money to advertise their new mirrorless systems. No longer can Fuji-Olympus-Panasonic advertising run on the “DSLR vs Mirrorless” argument.

3) Only the high end camera market is still profitable. It will be a strong fight for that small niche.

4) Fuji-Olympus-Panasonic high end camera now have to offer some clear strong advantage to justify the purchase over the larger sensor Canon-Nikon-Sony competition

Fuji has at least a “way out” with the GFX system for those who wont to have a larger sensor camera. I would hope Panasonic and Olympus will launch a new FF system together. But I am probably just dreaming…

Nikon FF mirrorless versis Nikon D7000 size comparison

23 days to go until Nikon will announce their first new Full Frame mirrorless camera. On top you can see an attempted size comparison between the new mirrorless (paper model) and the Nikon D7000 DSLR camera.