Nikon has eaten into Canon’s lead the digital SLR space, according to numbers released by IDC, which were then turned into this pretty graph by CNET. Canon SLRs accounted for 42.7 of the market in 2007 compared with Nikon’s 40 percent. One year earlier, Canon enjoyed a healthier lead, with 46.7 percent of the market to Nikon’s 33 percent. Hard numbers, Canon sold 3.18 million SLRs last year to Nikon’s 2.98 million.
And? So what?
Again, I don’t own stock in either company, so it doesn’t really matter to me one way or another, but I can think of a few reasons why the numbers behaved that way. One, the D3 and D300 are truly great SLRs. So I’m told. Not being a photographer, really, I can only go by what people who actually know that they’re talking about said. I remember speaking with my photojournalism professor last fall (she works for the AP) and she was genuinely impressed by the D3’s specs. (Lest we forget that FC Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o uses Nikon, too.) What did Canon come out with last year? Nothing that immediately comes to mind, that’s for sure.
CNET also points out that SLRs as a whole grew last year, outpacing point-and-shoots. Reason being, says an IDC analyst, is that folks are looking for more camera for their buck as they get tired of using crappy (relatively speaking) point-and-shoots. Y’all already know my opinion on that debate.