Konica Minolta to end its camera business
2006 is shaping up to be a year of tremendous change in the world of photography. First, Nikon announces they are going to abandon all film cameras except two and now this:
http://konicaminolta.com/releases/2006/0119_03_01.html
Konica Minolta is going to completely withdraw from all aspects of photography, both film /and/ digital. A large portion of their camera and photography related assets will be transfered to Sony.
This is quite shocking, given the length of time Minolta has been involved in the photography business. It's also a good sign of how tight the photography market really is today.
Sony, on the other hand, is going to be entering into the Digital SLR market. Since July 2005, KM and Sony were jointly developing a DSLR based around the Minolta lens mount found on their Maxxum line and now Sony is going to go it alone. I must wonder though, how likely it will be that Sony sticks with the KM mount. I can certainly see them abandoning it in favor of an in-house development, which would leave KM DSLR users hanging. But that's just speculation on my part. Sony will likely be a strong force in the DSLR market which will hopefully motivate Canon and Nikon to further innovation.
Strange times ahead for sure.
edit/update:
In other news, Canon has sold its 30 millionth EF lens.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0601/06011902canonef.asp
January 19th, 2006 - 11:15
I would LIKE to think that it would be in Sony’s best interests to retain the Minolta users, and to retain the value of the work that’s already been put into developing the KM/Sony DSLR. But hey…big business…they don’t work like normal people. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
January 19th, 2006 - 13:34
The driving force would be, I think, total number of end users that would buy a Sony DSLR. I don’t doubt that the number of KM DSLR users is vastly smaller than the total number of brand-concious Sony point and shoot digital users. One of Sony’s overall goals is to try and get as many point and shoot users as possible (looking to upgrade) to stay with Sony. If that means, for whatever reason, changing the mount, they’ll probably do it.
But if KM’s mount is already very robust and not limiting, perhaps they’ll stick with that mount for a long time.
We shall see