Sony likes to point out in presentations that they are now the clear number three in the camera market. That certainly has been confirmed recently by Mizuho Securities Equity Research in Tokyo, who found Sony has a 12% share of the DSLR market in the second quarter of 2008. This is more than double the Olympus market share. Sony has made great strides since acquiring Minolta, but it is still a long way to the 40%+ Canon DSLR market share in the same second quarter or the 30% Nikon share reported by Mizuho. Interesting enough, the Sony DSLR market share in some European markets is approaching 25%, or roughly double the US share.
Perhaps most interesting from the Mizuho data is the high cost Sony is paying to earn that market share. In the period from April to June 2008:
DSLR Operating Profit Margin
Company | DSLR Shipments | Operating Profit Margin
Canon | 1050000 | 23.20%
Nikon | 820000 | 19.10%
Sony | 330000 | -16.70%
Olympus | 150000 | -6.70%
The report grouped all other cameras in the "Other" category and did break out data for Pentax for example. Sony has deep pockets, but as a corporation we have to wonder how long Sony will tolerate this "bleeding" in their quest to win DSLR market share. To Sony's credit, they stuck with their plan and forged ahead to offer a "pro-friendly" full-frame Sony DSLR.