All interesting little stats. ; Though the big grain of salt with which all that has to be taken is that those are stats for Japan's market in 2010 so far. ; All of the ranks and positions mean a little less overall as they only apply to that 6 month period, and then there's the very big differences between the Japanese market and much of the rest of the world. ; What Japan buys doesn't necessarily say what Europe or US buys...NEX could be much more successful there than elsewhere, and Pentax could be a bigger hit there than elsewhere. ; Plus, that's only looking at DSLR vs mirrorless market, leaving out P&S. ; There's more secrecy in actual sales figures from camera manufacturers than there are in the U.S. nuclear weapons program!
Personally, I could care less who's #1 or #46...I buy what I like the best and what does what I need...and the only hope I have is that any of those manufacturers don't die away, for the sake of continued support and lenses for current users. ; At least so far, I can't really see any likelihood of Canon, Nikon, Sony, or Panasonic disappearing...Samsung is an unknown - massive company, but small presence in cameras. ; Oly for me is a bit unknown, because while micro-4/3 is doing well, their DSLR business has been stagnant and unupdated and their P&S market is vestigial. ; Pentax seems to be doing well in DSLRs, but Hoya still isn't at the size or level of the massive conglomerate behemoths, so though I don't see them disappearing, I could see them getting bought out, merged, or live on as a niche market strictly in DSLRs.
I'll always hope for someone other than Canon & Nikon to be out there though - I don't see any good coming from 1 or 2 massive companies owning the market - it tends to stagnate creative development, fix prices and profits artifically, and increase prices of used equipment on the second hand market. ; And try as I might, I just never seem to have any desire to own whatever is the best-selling and most desired thing on the planet! ; I have some kind of allergy against the Big Numero Uno...from sports teams to cars to watches to cameras to cellphones to computers...I just don't ever buy the hottest trend or support the most popular...I'm a real supporter of the underdog, the slightly different way of doing things, the one who goes against the trend. ; It's got to be some kind of disorder or syndrome!
