The biggest problem of Nikon is by Lior Koren, editor in chief of the Israeli online magazine www.dtown.co.il:
When Steve Jobs searched for a CEO that will replace him, He chose Tim Cook – the man that was in charge of the company’s inventory. Jobs did not choose a person from the Marketing or Research / Development departments but the one who was responsible that the customers will get the products they want – fast. The results? Apple became In August 2018 the first public U.S. company to be valued at over US$1 trillion.
Steve Jobs understood something that Nikon has not learned yet: It’s not enough to make good products. If you don’t deliver them on time, you lose.
The fiasco with the Nikon DL cameras left a bitter taste on my lips, the product hit a sweet spot for me and I believe for many, but the sweetness was replaced for bitterness after a long wait.
And the same thing is happening now with the most important announcement of Nikon in the recent years: The Z system.
The race is going full throttle right now, almost all of Nikon competitors are having product launches and spreading news these days but even Nikon fans are not getting enough field info to full fill the appetite.
Few weeks after Z world launch and still, very little real-world info we can count on.
For example, Z6 for videographers. I have searched deeply the Internet, found only one field video sample of the Nikon Z6 camera. Seriously Nikon? The most video centered model that can be your leading weapon again competition yet you don’t bother to show what its capable of? And the delivery date in shops should be only months from now.
Keeping customers wait too long for the product will do bad things to the company. Just look at the best example and learn. It looks like Nikon does not understand yet the importance of mass market marketing and quick delivering. Are you aware of the famous term: ”Time to Market”?
It looks like Nikon is focusing now mainly in “Try events”, letting some dozens of people fight on 3-4 camera bodies for a few minutes try. Are you kidding me? One pro online article/review can reach millions and not just a few dozens at a time. I am not saying this is not a good thing, but you have to do it both, side by side.
No, you do not have to spoil journalist by bringing them to Hawaii like Canon did, we need some more long-term and deeper more professionals’ reviews. You could have given some pro photographers to test the cameras before the launch date and then tell us all about it.
Some bloggers care only about being the first who publish, so they work too fast and do mistakes. So right now we are left only with misleading info (like battery life, focus not working as it should and tears about single card slot).
This is the most important act you have done in years, needing to race into it like crazy, but it looks like the company still does not understand it. You behave like you have all the time in the world. Sorry to tell you, these times are over. You’ve got good products, go spread the word in town and deliver, now.
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