Shocking (and wrong?) forecast by Credit Suisse: Only Nikon, Canon and Sony to survive in digital camera business.

The New York Times reported an analysis from Credit Suisse saying that the camera market will move towards an oligopoly where only big companies like Nikon, Canon and Sony will survive. Credit Suisse imaging analyst Yu Yoshida said that mirrorless cameras “are sputtering as buyers put connectivity above picture quality“. And sales are not growing in EU and USA because “consumers tend to equate image quality with size and heft“. For them solutions like the [shoplink 43613 ebay]Sony QX lenscameras[/shoplink] are more likely to be the future.

My note: I am used to these kind of forecasts. I remember of dozen of articles published many years ago saying that Olympus or Panasonic or other small companies would close their camera business the year after. As usual analysts tend to forget t 1) see the full picture (Olympus medical needs the camera business) 2) To understand the Japanese company culture and proud of history 3) their lack of seeing what’s really the future in the tech world.

I believe there will be always be a reason for mirrorless cameras to stay in the market. You cannot cheat physics. If you want the best quality you need larger sensor/cameras/lenses. Obviously, a question could be…do we need that more quality? Most of the people certainly no. But there will be always people who want to step up from the usual (and poorer) smartphone camera quality.