Archived entry | Matt Wilcox .net

Canon are struggling

The news that Cannon are struggling doesn’t come as a surprise to me. I get the impression that Canon as a company just want to f*** me, where as Nikon and Apple (as examples) care about customers. My advise to Cannon would be this:

1. Get out of the Point and Shoot market. You’ll be eaten alive by phones within five years. P & S cameras need to do all that iOS/Android does (run processing and sharing applications on the device), as well as iOS software does it, but with significantly better image quality, in order to compete. That just isn’t going to happen because phone camera’s are already “good enough” and far more convenient than a dedicated device. You don’t have the time to catch up anymore.
2. Cut the number of devices in all your sectors: focus much more. Profitability in diversity is no longer as viable. Screw having 60 different point and shoot cameras, or printers, all for niche “markets”. Do three or four at most, but extremely good ones. Use volume to make them affordable. Iterate on one or two base models. Focus.
3. Work on customer relations. That means re-building your god-awful websites that don’t work half the time. It means releasing drivers for your current generation of SELPHY printers for OSX Lion - it’s been 6 months, not a peep from you. It means making people feel like you care about them, not that they’re a commodity to be mined by you.

Entry Information

Posted:

Tue, 31st Jan 2012 at 12:01 UTC

Filed under:

• My Two Cents

Tags:

• iphone
• photography