Canon released its 3rd quarter financials a few days ago, and while there’s a lot to unpack there was one line that lept out at me.
Now, I don’t really go all fanboy that much – if anything I think some of you R100 owners think I’m downright mean against Canon, but in this case, this is a real fanboy comment, so just close your eyes as this may offend you ;)
Canon has been doing one of the craziest corporate pivots over the past decade moving from a primarily imaging company to a diverse company that isn’t reliant on one specific field, and to show how well they have been doing in this regard;
For the full year as well, we aim to achieve record high sales of 4.54 trillion yen [~30 billion USD], exceeding our record set in 2007
2007 was the height of the digital camera boom where just about anything with a digital sensor was greedily grabbed up by eager consumers. Canon produced 18 new digital cameras that year, including this insanely popular camera.
In the year prior, Canon refreshed the Rebel line with the 400D which carried momentum into 2007 as well. In other words, Canon was flying high at the time.
This year, they will most likely eclipse that record. Canon is certainly not doomed, and any weaknesses that Canon may have had, are quickly being pivoted away.
As far as their core financials, it’s really hard to find anything bad about it. Sales are up, operating profit is up, and gross profit is up. Everything is up – including corporate bonuses I bet ;)
Technology-wise, Canon has dropped nano imprinting equipment at the Texas Institute for Electronics (TIE). While there are still some fab issues with nanoimprinting – getting machines into TIE, may hasten the adaptation of this technology where EUV machines are simply not practical. Perhaps more alarming for the USA, the technology isn’t covered by US sanctions yet.
From Canon;
As for nanoimprint, which is the next generation semiconductor manufacturing equipment, we continue to conduct joint evaluation and verification with semiconductor manufacturers using various types of patterns for mass production applications. In September, we delivered our first system since its launch to the Texas Institute for Electronics (TIE), a semiconductor consortium supported by the University of Texas at Austin, for use in R&D and prototype manufacturing of leading-edge semiconductors.
Now the segment we all care about is imaging, and Canon has posted some good results there as well, led by the EOS R5 Mark II.
[O]verall sales increased by 8.6%. This reflects sales of the EOS R5 Mark II, a core camera in our lineup for professionals and enthusiasts launched at the end of August that has been highly evaluated by the market, and a recovery to double-digit growth in network camera sales.
Cameras posted a 5.3% net sales gain from the 3rd quarter of 2023 and is projected to be a 9.1% gain from 2023. Interestingly there is one negative thing in this report, and that is Canon has revised its total year-to-year projections down from 606 billion yen to 593 billion yen. China’s market is sluggish right now. They are all too busy buying Huawei’s foldable I guess.
I never put much stock on the change of forward-looking projections because it’s a black art and you can never really fully guess what is happening on a global scale in terms of economy or other events. For instance, hurricanes have devastated parts of the United States this year, and typhoons and related flooding have devastated a good chunk of southeast Asia and China as well. Many people have more important things to do right now than buying Canon stuff.
Canon has nothing but good stuff to say about the Imaging department;
This year, the interchangeable-lens camera market is expected to be 6.1 million units, slightly higher than last year, due to the active promotions by each company to stimulate demand and the growing demand among young people in China.
In the third quarter, we secured more orders than expected for the EOS R5 Mark II, a core model in our lineup for professionals and enthusiasts, launched in August, which was highly evaluated for its significantly improved still image and video performance. This led to an increase in our average selling price and sales growth of 5.3%.
Furthermore, in November, we plan to launch the EOS R1, which will be our flagship mirrorless camera model. Professional photographers have already tried it out in the field, and its outstanding autofocus performance has earned it a high reputation as a professional camera. Due to the launch of high-value-added models, we also expect sales of RF lenses to increase and are aiming to significantly expand sales by over 20% in the fourth quarter.
All in all, the 3rd quarter of 2024 was a good one for Canon, and they are looking at the 4th quarter as being even better. Only time will tell.
If you wish to read all about Canon’s financials here, you can view their financial library at this location.
Source: Canon Financials
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Being able to fund R&D for new products is great with the main corporate issue being able to delver enough stock.
"we also expect sales of RF lenses to increase and are aiming to significantly expand sales by over 20% in the fourth quarter."
This is a big change and perhaps mostly by being able to deliver more lenses.
The current apology page doesn't list any lenses at the moment.
https://personal-canon-jp.translate...231107?_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB
Back in August, the list included the RF200-800 as the sole lens.
There will be aggressive pricing in November and December.
I tend to plan purchases to coincide with family vacations to get the most use out of them, which means I need to get something delivered today or at the start of May :)
But before I even consider adding something, I need to through what I already have and sell/donate things I don’t use anymore!
I still have to write my ebook "best 101 ways to break a Canon R100"
Haters: Refrain from commenting since I won't read your poisonous posts!
Seems Canon are faring very well, despite the lack of the soo bitterly needed 3rd. party lenses or of a 60 MP sensor...
Could it be that their strategy was the right one?
For now these a great numbers and it looks like Canon is doing a very good job. I find the Nano imprinting especially interesting and hope to read more about it in the future.