Nikon counting on high-end digital SLR cameras

Nikon Corp President Michio Kariya said Friday the company intends to boost sales of its high-end digital single-lens reflex cameras, whose profit margins are higher than those for other cameras.

"This year, we will shift the focus of our strategy to strengthening brand power," Kariya said. He indicated that he does not mind if his company is replaced by rival Canon Inc as the top digital SLR camera seller in Japan this year in terms of volume. According to Kariya, Nikon places more emphasis on profitability than on a market share.

The Japanese digital SLR camera market is dominated by Nikon and Canon. Nikon was the market leader last year.

For its current business year, which began in April, Nikon puts its global SLR camera shipments at 3.3 million units, up 210,000 units from the previous year.

The projection is conservative compared with that of Canon, which foresees global shipments of 4.4 million units for calendar 2008, up one million units from 2007.

© JCN