The digicam sector isn’t precisely a thriving enterprise in the meanwhile, with year-on-year declining gross sales and a slew of producers having exited the market.
The one technique to survive — it could seem — is to have a big market share (like Canon) or to be a part of a a lot bigger enterprise (like Fujifilm). Or certainly, each (like Sony). Panasonic falls into the latter camp, a stalwart of the digital period that continues to push out new fashions. So what’s its technique and the place is it headed?
An Overview of the Firm
Panasonic, often known as Matsushita up till 2008, isn’t a small firm, with a turnover of ~$65 billion (in 2021) and using some 260,000 folks. Its principal focus is on dwelling home equipment, which embrace shopper electronics, manufacturing in massive volumes tools reminiscent of kitchen home equipment, refrigeration, shows (projectors and TVs), DVDs, PCs, and cameras. Nevertheless, Panasonic additionally designs and sells into the specialist avionics, automotive, and industrial markets.
The corporate’s cameras fall throughout the a lot bigger Home equipment Division which makes up 37% of revenue, though different massive divisions embrace Life Options (22%), Automotive (20%), and Industrial (19%). For Panasonic, 2021 noticed a modest discount in gross sales (11%) and working revenue (12%), though the Home equipment Division noticed a smaller drop in gross sales (4%) however a rise in working revenue (8%).
Past this basic overarching view of the enterprise, it’s virtually unimaginable to get any significant data on Panasonic’s cameras; when you look by means of its 2021 monetary report, cameras should not even talked about whereas disaggregating its gross sales is troublesome as the corporate doesn’t discuss cameras (not to mention gross sales volumes!) and the one different main metric is from the BCN Awards Knowledge. Panasonic doesn’t function within the three most important classes (mirrorless, DSLR, built-in), although it steamrollered the video digicam award, taking 43.6% of gross sales adopted by Sony (26.3%) and DJI (11.2%). Nevertheless, this isn’t a product class for CIPA so we don’t know what number of world shipments they symbolize.
The one different latest knowledge level we’ve is from the Techno System Analysis advertising report for 2020 (as reported by Fuji Rumors), which confirms world digicam shipments at 8.9 million items with the next market share: Canon (47.9%), Sony (22.1%), Nikon (13.7%), Fuji (5.6%), and Panasonic (4.4%).
In fact, this combines mirrorless, DSLR, and built-in cameras; the report then focuses on the mirrorless section, with market shares altering to: Sony (35.7%), Canon (32.6%), Fuji (11.8%), Nikon (8.0%), Olympus (6.4%), and Panasonic (5.5%). Linking this up with world cargo knowledge from CIPA, Panasonic’s share equates to about 157,000 items, solely hair’s width again from Olympus and Nikon.
The place Has Panasonic Come From?
Panasonic’s digicam enterprise is basically predicated on the digital revolution, although, very like Sony, it was manufacturing video cameras again within the Eighties and had experience in lens design. Again within the dust-covered historical past of movie cameras, it did really make some fashions, although they have been backside shelf, point-and-click, affairs such because the C-225EF.
Because the Nineties progressed, it step by step launched extra refined electronics reminiscent of autofocus and super-zooms. On the similar time, it was additionally creating early compact digital fashions such because the PV-DC1000 and NV-DCF1 (each in 1997). Nevertheless, it was the pivot to digital that noticed a step-change within the manufacturing it undertook, which was largely constructed upon the company relationships it solid. Two stand out which have stood the take a look at of time: Leica and Olympus.
Panasonic was presumably the producer of the 1995 Leica Minilux earlier than the inspiration of the Lumix collection of compact cameras in 2001, for which Leica allowed using its lens constructions however left the design and manufacture (topic to approval) to Panasonic. In return, Panasonic centered upon digicam electronics. This was much like the connection Leica had with Minolta within the Seventies, however this time it was making an attempt to reforge itself because the digital period dawned.
The LC5 and F7 have been the primary fruits of this labor and marked a step up from Panasonic’s earlier choices; it was the appropriate relationship, on the proper time, simply as digital digicam gross sales exploded.
Panasonic wasn’t standing nonetheless, although, because it tried to strike out in a route that was completely different from Nikon, Canon, and Sony (which had simply acquired the well-established Minolta). Olympus supplied an alternate route by means of its 4 Thirds System collaboration with Kodak. Olympus had singularly didn’t pivot to a digital SLR from its profitable line of OM movie cameras and the 4 Thirds was a second chunk on the apple, besides this time doing one thing deliberately completely different to different producers and that wasn’t APS-C or full body.
The E-1 was Olympus’s first providing that launched a brand new sensor dimension and lens mount, beginning a recent system from scratch. Kodak was now within the sundown of the digital day and would quickly fade to obscurity, however it provided the primary sensors earlier than Panasonic stuffed the manufacturing hole in later Olympus fashions. In the long run, solely Panasonic (and in consequence Leica) and Olympus made digicam our bodies for the 4 Thirds ecosystem.
The E-1 was a revolutionary flop; the 2x crop issue of the 4 Thirds specification gave cameras attain and, with the smaller recordsdata, doubtlessly pace. It additionally meant they could possibly be each smaller and lighter. Olympus produced the E-1 for information and sports activities shooters, however in the end it wasn’t keenly sufficient priced and had comparatively sluggish taking pictures speeds and AF in comparison with Canon and Nikon.
Panasonic, nonetheless, had joined the get together and launched its first-ever DSLR within the type of the L1 in 2006. The L1 and its successor, the L10, have been Panasonic’s solely 4 Thirds cameras because the model pressed forward with the event of the Micro 4 Thirds (MFT) system. Who is aware of who got here up with the concept, however maybe Panasonic’s video credentials have been the driving force behind eradicating the mirror field; this gave extra video-like efficiency and saved area and weight, nonetheless, the draw back was that it now relied on distinction focusing, a method in its infancy.
Panasonic was the primary to the manufacturing punch with the discharge of the G1 in 2008, adopted — in time — by the Olympus Pen E-P1. Whereas it could take Olympus till 2012 with the discharge of the OM-D E5 to essentially innovate, Panasonic had nailed its intentions to the mast from day one. Video was king and there was a burgeoning market of newbie (and never so newbie) videographers wanting the product.
Panasonic had wholesome gross sales from day one and had the primary spot in BCN mirrorless at 38.7% in 2011 when the class first appeared (and certain from 2008). It wasn’t till the discharge of the OM-D E-M5 in 2012 that Olympus lastly overtook it. Maybe Panasonic noticed the writing on the wall at this level, whether or not it was the necessity to promote each small and huge sensors or that Olympus was solely dedicated to MFT, however it determined to supply full-frame fashions within the type of the S1 and S1R in 2019. This clearly got here from its relationship with Leica; the L-mount first appeared on Leica’s 2014 Leica T and is a completely fashionable mirrorless mount designed for full-frame.
Was this a part of Panasonic’s technique, did Leica require Panasonic to supply a full-frame mannequin as a part of their strategic partnership, or was it merely a possibility that introduced itself? Regardless of the cause, Panasonic now finds itself with an enviable vary of MFT cameras which might be compact and significantly good at video. These are accompanied by a high-performance full-frame digicam that shares a heritage with Leica and has a rising vary of native lenses.
There may be now each breadth and depth to its choices.
Does Panasonic Have a Intelligent Lengthy-Time period Plan?
The broader query is that this: does Panasonic — in its growth from bottom-of-the-bin movie cameras by means of to high-performance full-frame cameras — have a intelligent long-term plan? Or are cameras merely a company plaything supported and cross-subsidized by the broader enterprise?
Firstly, Panasonic doesn’t have an extended digicam heritage like Canon or Nikon; there’s apparent satisfaction in its merchandise, however it isn’t the cultural cornerstone of the enterprise.
Secondly, it has been fixed in its pursuit of success and market share from its early partnership with Leica.
Thirdly, it hasn’t been afraid to innovate throughout the constraints of the partnerships it has shaped. Canon, Nikon, and Sony have all been singularly centered on their very own methods and, in their very own methods, conservative (though maybe much less so with Sony).
Have developments in 4 Thirds, MFT, and full-frame merely been a case of being in the appropriate on the proper time, or has Panasonic been slowly constructing breadth and depth as capability and functionality have elevated? It lately dedicated to persevering with the breadth of its MFT choices.
Flipping this line of considering on its head, was full-frame a “completed deal” from the start? Was there all the time a plan to supply a big sensor mannequin in collaboration with Leica as each corporations developed in tandem? Are we seeing the fruits of that technique as we enter the 2020s?
Is Panasonic going to extend its market presence, constructing out its full-frame lineup as a part of the L-Mount Alliance with Leica and Sigma? Or is all we’re seeing a haphazard strategy to its product line growth? If the L-Mount isn’t profitable, will it pull the product vary to proceed its deal with Micro 4 Thirds?
In brief, is Panasonic lumbering or slumbering?
Picture credit: Panasonic GH5 photograph and determine illustration from Depositphotos
