Kodak leads Canon and Sony in camera market

Kodak leads Canon and Sony in camera market

With Canon due to launch, its much awaited Canon 5D camera, the latest news from the market suggests that it is Kodak which is leading the consumer interests in the digital camera market. Eastman Kodak is stretching its domination over the competition in the form of Canon and Sony. Kodak shipped 1.25 million point-and-shoot digital cameras in the domestic market in the last quarter, which is around 51 percent more than in the second quarter of 2004.

More impressively, the market share of the company rose to 23.8 percent from 18.3 percent a year ago as per the reports from research firm IDC. Canon comes at second position with 1.15 million shipments in the second quarter. They improved their share in the US camera market to 21.9 percent from 15.2 percent a year ago. Once the leaders in this segment, Sony are a distant third with just 980,000 shipments and an 18.6 percent market share.

It was followed by another well-known brand Olympus Corporation that shipped 335,000 cameras. The company now has a rather unimpressive market share of 6.4 percent down from 10.9 percent a year ago. Other brands to make their impression were Hewlett-Packard, Fuji Photo Film, and Nikon with each of them having a sub 10% market share.

Another survey conducted by J.D. Power and Associates claims that Kodak is ranked at top for U.S. customer satisfaction in two segments — cameras priced $200 to $399 and cameras priced below $200. Sony on the other hand dominated the $400-to-$599 and $600-plus categories. However, it remains interesting to know that Kodak is not that hot on the global sales. The company comes at third behind Sony and Canon.