Canon, Nikon are afraid of Sony

OK! Maybe not statue-frozen by fright, but Amateur Photographer gave us today a few interesting data points showing that Sony quickly progresses in the photo market including in the interchangeable lens camera segment.

AP tells us that on the Japanese market, where Nikon and Canon together loose about 11% of market share, Sony reaches the 15% water mark. The two big brands do not lave their top positions, but Sony is now a clear third runner with a very aggressive range for small- and medium-sized systems (compact and NEX cameras).

Nikon is still very powerful everywhere in the world thanks to (little known fact) an impressive strength for point-and-shoot cameras (they ship as much as they can manufacture) and is nearly certainly preparing the launch in 2011 of a direct competition to Sony NEX (mirror-less cameras with interchangeable lenses). I stay convinced that the yellow brand is ready to fight.

Things are less easy for Canon. Having told clearly that they don’t want to see the SLR cameras competing against a new series, but ready to fight the price war, they are not easily perceived as having the impetus to blow new life into the whole photo Division, even if Canon is still totally unavoidable for SLR’s mainly because its policy of small but repeated increments succeeds in re-assuring more than revolutionary leaps (as difficult to understand as they can be elsewhere on the market).