Canon 2010 Annual Report Download - page 62
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Please find page 62 of the 2010 Canon annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.CANON ANNUAL REPORT 201060
Consumer Business Unit
The digital SLR market continued to grow steadily in 2010.
Additional manufacturers entered the market this year, expand-
ing the market with mirrorless digital cameras, and solid growth
in digital SLR cameras continued. These trends show that there
is still a strong market need for high-quality digital photography.
With respect to digital SLR cameras, the market shows
demand for increased numbers of pixels. Higher sensitivity,
miniaturization, reduced weight and video functions have
become standard specifi cations as well, including the support
by each company of full HD image quality in this market. By
offering new products based on cutting-edge technology,
Canon seeks to continue its growth into the foreseeable future.
In addition, sales volume in emerging markets appears ready
to expand dramatically. For this reason, there is an urgent need
to upgrade sales structures and other systems in order to han-
dle this expansion.
During fi scal year 2010, the compact digital camera market
was driven by growth in China, Russia, and other emerging
economic regions. Although markets in some developed eco-
nomic regions have expanded due to a reduction in average
prices across the industry, overall, such regions have remained
stable or have declined as compared to the previous year. Total
global growth increased slightly, while Canon has maintained a
high share at the same level as during the previous consolidat-
ed fi scal year.
Developed markets are expected to remain stable in 2011,
and emerging markets are expected to remain on a positive
growth track, resulting in a projected slight increase worldwide
as compared to consolidated fi scal 2010.
A fi erce price war and the strong yen have been drastically
squeezing profi t margins in the digital camera market. Although
the industry as a whole is relying more and more on electronic
manufacturing service (“EMS”) companies and cost competi-
tion is expected to intensify in the future, we plan to take
advantage of our industry-leading economies of scale and its
100% internal manufacturing system in order to maintain and
solidify our profi tability.
We expect continued growth in the interchangeable lens
market due to the rapid spread of digital SLR cameras and mir-
rorless digital cameras. Canon aims to continue expanding its
sales and market share by introducing products with features
that satisfy customer needs, such as lenses with image stabiliz-
er functionality.
The global digital video camcorder market has diversifi ed due to
the introduction of new recording media, such as fl ash memory.
During this consolidated fi scal year, however, trends toward
fl ash memory and HD as the future mainstream medium
became clear. Despite the worldwide economic downturn that
started in the second half of 2008, the fl ash memory and HD
market segments have continued to grow year-on-year. The
new, lowest-priced webcam product category (under $200) has
proven strong, particularly in North America. Webcams appeal
to a user segment that wants to enjoy convenient video capa-
bilities, and they have been selling in increasing numbers.
Canon is working to expand sales of its powerful lineup of
products to meet a wide range of user needs with even greater
added value and seeks to differentiate itself from the competi-
tion based on its high-quality HD image technology concept.
The business application projector market experienced the
effects of the continuing economic downturn during this con-
solidated fi scal year as well, resulting in a slowdown as com-
pared to previous forecasts. In particular, this downturn
affected products with high added value. However, system inte-
grators and other video professionals continue to require these
high added value products, and therefore Canon plans to con-
tinue working to maintain and expand sales.
In 2010, although expansion in the market for network cam-
eras used for surveillance video and monitoring applications
softened somewhat, this market has been recording solid
growth up until the present. We expect that the trends toward
larger numbers of pixels, advancements in video analysis tech-
nology and the industry standardization of operational com-
mands will lead to future growth in this market. In order to
avoid missing these trends, Canon is working to increase sales
with an expanded competitive lineup.
The broadcast television lens market experienced a tempo-
rary decline in the wake of the economic downturn. However,
the market has been on course for a gradual overall recovery
during consolidated fi scal year 2010, partially thanks to an
expansion of the market in countries where the industry is still
emerging. Nevertheless, due to the progressive reduction in
prices caused by equipment downsizing as well as the infl u-
ence of the strong yen, while revenue growth was achieved,
profi ts declined. We expect this downsizing trend to continue,
and starting next year, Canon will work to expand profi ts by
reinforcing its family of products aimed at responding to this
change in the industry. In the medium term, we expect that this
industry will be revitalized by increased demand for equipment
upgrades due to the industry switch to digital broadcasting as
well as demand from emerging markets. Canon already has a
large market share worldwide, and plans to increase sales and
expand its share further as the market recovers by releasing
highly competitive products to the market in a timely fashion,
further solidifying its position in the industry.
The Inkjet printer market recovered in 2010. While emerging
countries have contributed to the growth of market volume, in
advanced countries there are increasing demands of small and
home offi ce for high-value added products including MFPs with
fax and ADF function and also wireless models. Along with
basic performance, such as image quality and print speed, each
vendor began to enhance the product design, ease of use and
applications to increase user satisfaction. To manage these
trends, Canon has introduced new models with variety of new
features, such as an Intelligent Touch System, which provides
light-guided direction, and Full HD Movie Print. Thereby
strengthening its lineup from entry-level to high-end models,
Canon intends further sales expansion.
Industry and Others Business Unit
In fi scal 2010, the semiconductor device market recovered strongly
from the economic downturn starting in the second half of fi scal
2008. There were noteworthy improvements for semiconductor
device market categories such as DRAM and NAND-fl ash memory,