Nikon announced their financial results for the first half of the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2015 – the company is still profitable and the sales and income forecasts stay unchanged:
“Sales volume in the first half year decreased from a year earlier in all product groups owing to market shrinkage. Sales and operating income fell 75.1 billion yen and 3.4 billion yen, respectively.”
Financial estimation for the year ending on March 31, 2015:
“Sales volume forecast of digital cameras – interchangeable lens type is revised by reflecting the first half year results, however, forecasts of sales and operating income stay unchanged. Although the market recovery of digital camera – interchangeable lens type has been slower than predicted, sales shift toward mid/high-end cameras is expected, thus the full-year forecasts for sales and operating income remain unchanged.”
Nikon is not the only company hurt in the camera sales slow down – Canon also lowered their target DSLR camera shipments for fiscal 2014:
Here is the latest CIPA data for global camera shipments for the first nine months of 2014 compared to 2012 and 2013 (click on image for larger view):
The US dollar is at new highs vs. the yen – hopefully this will bring some good deals to the US in the next few months. Nikon is forecasting the yen to drop further to 100 for 1 US dollar (currently 1 USD = 114 yen):
