[Zav]

The French website "les numeriques" has published an analysis of the financial results of the camera manufacturers the Q1 for the fiscal year 2014.
Résultats financiers trimestriels des constructeurs photo

One interesting fact: 88% of the camera related revenue of Ricoh(Ricoh-Pentax Imaging, whatever you call it) is still coming from Japan! The second market would be Europe with 4.8%!
Wow!! It's easy to understand the attention given to the domestic market.

[aleonx3]

not surprising to me... I think it is prudent for them to restore confidence locally first before attempting other mature markets and competing with Canikon giants...

[psychdoc]

Per web translation:

"Since joining the Ricoh Group, all is well in the best of all worlds for Pentax. All market participants, it is the only one to have all the indicators in the green. Ricoh CA up 14% thanks to its business copiers and Pentax follows (but to a lesser extent, with an increase of only 7%)".

Not clear how much of this is due to weak yen:
"Finally, note that Panasonic is the only manufacturer to emphasize that, if the total turnover seems to have increased by 1%, this is mainly due to exchange rate more favorable than last year. Constant yen, sales would have decreased by 9%".

Nikon despite all the full-frame hoopla does not seem to be doing all that well, but part of the problem is that it is the most dependent on camera and lens sales alone...

[Docrwm]

Per web translation:

"Since joining the Ricoh Group, all is well in the best of all worlds for Pentax. All market participants, it is the only one to have all the indicators in the green. Ricoh CA up 14% thanks to its business copiers and Pentax follows (but to a lesser extent, with an increase of only 7%)".

Not clear how much of this is due to weak yen:
"Finally, note that Panasonic is the only manufacturer to emphasize that, if the total turnover seems to have increased by 1%, this is mainly due to exchange rate more favorable than last year. Constant yen, sales would have decreased by 9%".

Nikon despite all the full-frame hoopla does not seem to be doing all that well, but part of the problem is that it is the most dependent on camera and lens sales alone...

They have been strong n the Home market, at least disproportionately strong there. Good news. Now, can they improve their infrastructurevhere in the US?

[RonHendriks1966]

So Olympus is smaller then Pentax in imaging??????????

[Zav]

So Olympus is smaller then Pentax in imaging??????????

You read correctly

[Docrwm]

So Olympus is smaller then Pentax in imaging??????????

Well, can we really rely on their books?

[Na Horuk]

Wow. No wonder Pentax is so.. unknown in the countries that most of the forum members are from.

Well, can we really rely on their books?

[filoxophy]

Wow, 88%! Surprised me. At least that means there's plenty of room for expansion worldwide. So for those who follow the numbers--is Pentax's share of the Japanese market much bigger than its market share in, say, the US or Europe? Or are they somewhat niche over there and positively obscure everywhere else?

[jamarley]

I've always had the feeling that the Japanese market was and is paramount to Asahi, Hoya and now Ricoh. Is it any wonder, then, that the Ricoh leadership would see their own brand as all that really matters? In other words, if the Ricoh name is strong in Japan (compared to the rest of the world) then what's keeping them from gradually phasing out the Pentax name? From their point of view, changing it to something entirely new might not make sense, but changing it to a well-known Japanese brand (Ricoh) would eventually work.

[monochrome]

The Ricoh brand is known globally for office equipment where Ricoh has traditionally renamed acquired brands to Ricoh.

For some reason we on this Forum insist on looking for an excuse for Ricoh to drop the Pentax brand name because they have always done so in the B2B channel. B2C is not B2B.

As I understand the Japanese market, admittedly from afar, the Pentax camera name is much better known, especially in SLR's, than Ricoh. Unless they are outright liars or the world changed dramatically since July 12th, the president of Pentax stated in a Press Release Ricoh intends to maintain the Pentax name for dSLR's and professional products. Ricoh gets new technology and maybe compacts. Pentax is committed to K-mount, Q and 645.

[Asahiflex]

The bar chart from the article:

[Uluru]

Fujifilm and Pentax are close match, both following similar performance. For both FY14 was better than the FY13. Interesting.

[Clavius]

Panasonic being so strong is a big surprise to me.

[Asahiflex]

As also Sony and Samsung show such big figures (way bigger than Nikon and Canon) I'm sure this includes their other operations as well (consumer electronics such as TVs etc.)