The damages of the Kumamoto sensor production center will certainly have an impact on Sony-Nikon-Fuji camera sales this year. Sony today released the following update:

Operations at Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation’s Kumamoto Technology Center (located in Kikuchi Gun, Kumamoto Prefecture) were halted after the earthquakes and remain suspended. The extent of the damage caused by the earthquakes is being evaluated and preparations for the rehabilitation of the site are underway, with priority being placed on the safety of employees. Measures to minimize the impact on business operations are also under consideration.
The survey of damage to the Kumamoto Technology Center conducted so far has revealed damage to certain parts of the building, clean rooms and production equipment. The timeframe for resuming operations has yet to be determined. The Kumamoto Technology Center is the primary manufacturing site for image sensors for digital cameras and security cameras as well as for micro-display devices.
The impact of the earthquakes on Sony’s consolidated results continues to be evaluated. The suspension of operations at the Kumamoto Technology Center may have an adverse impact on Sony’s operating results, particularly in the Devices and Imaging Products & Solutions segments. In addition, the earthquakes have caused damage to the manufacturing facilities of certain third-party suppliers of components to Sony, the impact of which on Sony’s business operations is currently being evaluated.

Sony had to halt the sensor production fab in Kumamoto because of the heavy earthquake. Sony is still evaluating the damage. But so far we can tell that this will definitely have an impact on camera sales from Sony, Fuji and Nikon. Nikon reported that their new DL compact series “will be delayed due to the serious issues with the integrated circuit for image processing built into the three new premium compact cameras, originally scheduled for a June 2016 release.”

It’s unclear if Sony, Fuji, Nikon will also delay the launch of some of their still to be announced products (like the X-PRO 2 and Sony A9).

As usual with the yearly TIPA award every photo company got to win a least one prize. They made up so many different categories for that goal! Don’t know how everyone can take them seriously…

Perhaps the only real news here is that for the first time in years Samsung won no prize. Obviously because Samsung pulled out of the market last year.