Canon lifts forecast after rapid quake recovery (Reuters)

[Chris Dodkin]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/25/us-canon-idUSTRE76O0O020110725

(Reuters) - Canon Inc posted better-than-expected quarterly profits and raised its annual forecast after it staged a rapid recovery from supply chain woes sparked by the March 11 earthquake.

Canon, which competes with Sony and Nikon in digital cameras and with Xerox and Hewlett-Packard Co in office equipment, on Monday revised its full-year profit forecast up to 380 billion yen from 335 billion yen.

Positive spin on the outlook - Q2 numbers were hit 20% by the quake, supply chain issues and strong Yen.

You'd have to believe that R&D and new releases would be at least delayed...

 

[Larry Bolch]

Japan knows earthquakes—they are part of life there. There was no expectation of a 9.0, but much of their ongoing preparations applied as well to such a powerful event. I was on the list for one of the first Fujifilm X100 cameras which went into production just days before the quake. Fuji's plant is just north of Sendai, the city closest to the epicenter. They kept customers quite well informed during March, and by the end of the month were back in production and at least partly back up to speed. The same was true of Nikon, whose pro-camera plant is pretty much in the middle of Sendai. Word is that Nikon is setting up press events around the world on August 24th. If this is as most suspect, the announcement of the D4 generation of cameras, they are right on schedule, based upon the announcement dates of the D1 to the D3.

 

[Oliver Lee-Haswell]

Word is that Nikon is setting up press events around the world on August 24th. If this is as most suspect, the announcement of the D4 generation of cameras, they are right on schedule, based upon the announcement dates of the D1 to the D3.

interesting, i wonder if we will also hear about D800/D400/D95 (or whatever the replacement will be called), yes Nikon plant in sendai was hit bad (where all the Full Frame (FX) camera sensors are made), but the biggest problem wasnt the plants which are built to withstand earthquakes, but the infrastructure and getting people to work in the plants safely. Also a lot of small electronic plants were affected so although the big bits were fine the small micro-switches could not be sourced.

as far as all reports that we have received now (and Sigma has been the one company that gave information throughout) everything is gearing up to be back to normall production soon.

 

[Larry Bolch]

interesting, i wonder if we will also hear about D800/D400/D95 (or whatever the replacement will be called)

Based upon the past, I would guess that this will be announcing the D4 and the D400, just as the D3 and D300 was a joint announcement. If the pattern is being followed, that would mean the D800 about a year from now.

As per D95, Nikon appears to now be using Dxxxx for entry-level/consumer-level cameras, and they were all replaced within the last year. D3100, D5100 and D7000.