Canon has consistently proved its worth time and again, whether it be in the markets or among photographers. Never one to limit itself from venturing into new arenas or experiments, Canon has gained its popularity from its products.
Kensaku Konishi, President and CEO of Canon India sheds some light on the future in a conversation with Mathew Thottungal.
Canon has always been on the forefront when it involves introducing revolutionary products, both in the compact as well as the D-SLR domain. At Photofair 2011, what innovative products and technologies can the consumers expect from Canon?
The Indian consumer has realized that multiple technology is the hallmark of a good digital camera to capture pictures, in both compact and D-SLR categories, rather than megapixels alone. Canon is leading the market trend using HS system, Macro, Tilt and shift and smart AUTO. Canon is one of the very few companies that have their own optic sensor process, as well as motion detection technology. This works as an advantage to realize more sophisticated and superior functions.
2010 has been a remarkable year for all camera manufacturers, especially with the festive period sales recording impressive gains in terms of volumes. In your assessment how has the last year under review (2010) been for the industry in general and Canon India in particular, in terms of recorded sales? The year 2010 was remarkable for digital cameras. For example, the digital compact camera market expanded to over 20 lac units from 14 lac units in the year 2009. The D-SLR market has been estimated to have reached 80,000 units as compared to 20,000 units in the year 2009. Canon is very proud to be leading this expansion of business. We do believe this year will see similar or higher market expansion ratios as 2010. Therefore, we intend to focus more on sales network, as well as service support to cater to a larger number of customers.
The compact camera market has really blossomed in numbers during the last couple of years in India. However, the D-SLR category only contributes a mere 10 percent to the overall growth. Even with the availability of low end D-SLRs, the migration towards this category is still a far cry. In your opinion, how do you intend to address the need of expanding this market, while educating the consumers about the fun of photography. As we have mentioned before, DSLR unit sales ratio, as compared to Compact camera was around 4 percent in the year 2010, gaining an increase from less than 2 percent in the year 2009. In advanced countries like US, Europe, as well as Japan, Digital SLR ratio against Digital camera is around 10 percent or little more. When we see the Indian number, we fi nd it to be lower than advanced countries standards. However, we see this 4 percent as a very encouraging number. Because in advanced countries the penetration ratio of Digital compact is nearly 80%, but we do believe, the Indian number is much lower than that. We celebrate our Digital SLR sales because, for us the year 2010 truly, is the start for Digital SLR sales in India.
HD movie feature in still cameras is an addition that has been overwhelmingly welcomed by the photo enthusiasts and pro alike. How does Canon intend to cash in on this feature in its product lines and at the same time hope to unravel the benefi ts of this feature to target the wedding photographers to make the transition to the same.
HD Movies is one of the great features of any Digital camera, both Compact as well as SLR. Quality is the most important thing, especially for professionals. However, the HD Movie system in our SLRs gives high resolution with great sound. In addition to this, the wide variety of lenses available, enables more sophisticated videos rather than conventional video systems. Of course, two devices in one proves to be an advantage for all professionals. Similarly, wedding photographers will enjoy these functions as well. We intend to promote it through our seminars, training and customer needs and we are confi dent it will be accepted well by photographers of all levels.
Mathew Thottungal
