… is because Canon has one:
But seriously, Nikon and Canon always have announcements scheduled just few days apart and it seems that this will also be the case this month: Canon will present new products on September 15th and 27th. In August Canon announced new compact cameras a day before Nikon. This is not a coincidence.
Reuters published a video about the potential Nikon announcements ahead of the London 2012 Olympics:
The analyst also mentioned the upcoming Nikon mirrorless announcement in September (good to see Reuters reporting Nikon rumors).
It seems that the new red Nikon D3100 will be available for sale only in Europe (Germany, Sweden, Romania, etc.) and Japan. According to the official German press release, the red D3100 kit will cost 599 EUR and will be available exclusively on amazon.de. The release date is September 22nd (few days earlier for Japan).
Next Nikon announcement is on September 21st. I do not expect anything but the mirrorless system to be introduced on that date. I also do not expect any other announcements in September (no full frame cameras). There will be more new Nikon products introduced later in 2011.
I will be publishing few guests posts in the next few days to kill some time.
This is the announcement for tonight: Nikon D3100 in red… Well, not really an announcement, there is no official press release for obvious reasons. The red D3100 may only be for the US market since I did not see any updated on the other international Nikon websites. As I mentioned on several occasions, we should all have lowered our expectations for this “new” product.
Update: see my next post for more details on this camera.
After Nikon Austria and Nital (Nikon Italy), there will be also a Nikon press event in Switzerland (available also here. Google translation):
Bloomberg published an article on the current mirrorless camera market based on latest BCN ranking results. In 2011 mirrorless camera sales surged in Japan compared to previous years. With the lack of mirrorless solutions, Canon and Nikon’s combined share in Japan has fallen by 35%, while Sony’s share has doubled.
This is what a Tokyo-based analyst said on this topic:
“Mirrorless cameras are a threat, if the western geographies follow the same pattern as Asia, then it will be negative for Nikon and Canon.”
Nikon did not schedule any press events for this week’s announcement which means that the new product (or service) will not be of any significance. At that point I don’t even think it will be a DSLR camera, probably some kind of accessory (maybe a teleconverter or a new lens in the best case scenario). Expect the press release to be up on Nikon’s website at midnight tonight or tomorrow night (EST).
