The downfall of Lanier, coincidentally or not, came at a time when Sony's market share in the full frame mirrorless segment started to dip. While it's true that the ILC market in general is contracting, Sony's share has been falling as well after Canon announced their EOS R system and Nikon their Z system last September. Panasonic came out with its own full frame mirrorless system this year, and Fuji keeps expanding its GFX crop-medium format system that also takes sales away from Sony Alpha, once the one and only choice of millennial Youtubers and Instagram snappers. The market has changed a lot in a year, there's so much more choice now in terms of great cameras and systems, be it in the DSLR or in the mirrorless segment, and almost every brand has taken away pieces and chunks of the pie from Sony. A lot of Sony ambassadors, especially those young wannabe photographers and Youtubers, have understood that they're missing on a lot of content, because they're exclusive to Sony, and Sony is not really innovating at a pace that they used to. What they bring out is mostly 90% same as the camera before, everything is iteration at this point. People want exciting new things in the camera world, and in 2019 Sony is not the brand anymore to do so: Today it's Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, Fuji and Apple. Sony is clearly at the tail end of innovation right now.
Sony has a problem
- All 100 ambassadors are competing for money every month
- Sony is organizing camps where all ambassadors can join in, all expenses paid
- Ambassadors have to post at least one post about Sony every month
- Ambassadors get 20% discount on Sony gear
- Ambassadors can get loaners from Sony (bodies, lenses) at any time
I'm sure Sony wasn't happy that he spilled the beans in such great detail, but it's good for us to understand how Sony is using these guys to promote their products and brands. We as consumers are often not sure what is content and what is advertising, the lines are often blurry, so this video offers great insight, because Andy feels very genuine and honest here.
What's your opinion? Is Sony on a downtrend?
UPDATE (Sep 23, 2019)
Andy removed the video a day after publishing it for unknown reasons.
Please explain to me, how was Sony's share in FF mirrorless not supposed to dip after other players entered the category? They started with 100%. Think that sentence through.
ReplyDeleteOf course it was supposed to dip. They're not innovating anymore, while industry is creating new wider mounts and faster and better glass. Canon and Nikon are also much better in ergonomics and user experience, as well as they support a lot of legacy glass natively. They also have better quality control. Recently, there was the huge issue of Sony A7iii and A7Riii shutter failing in huge numbers, yet there was no recall. This will just drive people back to Nikon and Canon who have better support. So yes, the share was supposed to dip, but it will deep further.
DeleteI don't think you understood my point. If a manufacturer has 100% market share in a category and other competitors enter that category, he can no longer have 100%. This is math. As to your other arguments, I understand you want to believe that, but this is all very subjective. For example, I saw multiple films on YT with photographers talking about how they stopped being Fuji ambassadors. Does that mean Fuji is doomed? Not necessarily in my opinion.
DeleteOf course I understood you. If brand A is the sole brand in a specific segment, naturally the share will get lower when brand B and C enter the same segment. The problem is the share dropped significantly. Sure, Sony has APS-C cameras as well as point and shoots, but the biggest margins are in the products with the ASP above 2000 USD. Sure, that segment in itself is small, but now it's become even smaller for Sony. Meanwhile the DSLR market is still larger than the overall mirrorless market, where Canon and Nikon dominate. If anyone is doomed, it might be Panasonic or possibly Olympus, but they're quite strong in Japan and Asia, so it will take a long time before a brand vanishes (some also have other businesses). What I suspect could happen is that Sony does what Samsung did: Pulls out of the business because if the profits shrink, the imaging department will become very small within Sony. Corporations like Sony and Samsung only care about profit. Brands like Canon, Nikon and Fuji value tradition and customer service, hence I think they will remain in the market, even if it shrinks further. They'll focus on high margin products and expand to other businesses (which is already happening basically).
DeleteAs for me being subjective: That's the whole point of my blog. I share opinions, ideas, views. That's why I am blogging.
No, you really don't understand his point at all. Is this site for you vent? ah it's for you to blog. Well you had best expect debate, and possibly conflicting debate if you have comments enabled.
DeleteDo you have anything to add on topic? I was debating with Alek who had offered some arguments. What's your point here? Do you use my site only to vent?
Deleteeven though Sony has stopped innovating, they are still offering one of the best system. I use z6 and i love my z6 but still I have to admitted that sony is a better choice for starters.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not. Stop it.
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ReplyDeleteSony has created an amazing system that if you are a skilled photographer becomes very apparent. All this back and forth conversation boils down to a competitive market and camera companies will follow their individual pursuit and either create a system that
Lands on the mountain top or in the mudd. Nikon and Canon has demonstrated this well. They sometimes grow and learn. Sony has done this well and grown. As they become better companies with better products. And others times they lean on arrogance and market share and eventually get swallowed. The greatest example of perseverance is Apple, the company all said would crash and was junk. Now the world eats there products like know tomorrow soon to be a two trillion dollar company. Sony is Apple. The truth is any company that listens to their consumer and create based on the mass opinions will have victory in any market. Sony has done this Right. And now Sony has landed on the mountain and forced theses other companies to put up and shut up. The consumer wins regardless and 5 more years from now you will really understand why when DSLRs are paperweights who made the best decisions.
"Sony is Apple."
DeleteLOL! Not even close. Sony is a Samsung wannabe, that's all. Nothing original, no big innovations, but extremely good in manufacturing at a large scale. Apple produces unique and premium products that have their own OS and hardware. Sony did not invent mirrorless cameras, nor did they invent photography. They bought Minolta and saw what Nikon and Canon are doing, copied that, and scaled up. There's nothing unique about Sony cameras, it's all electronics and software that is supposed to last you a couple of years, and then you need to replace it. Just like their computers, phones, VCRs and other crap they produced over the years.
Well, Canon and Nikon did not invent cameras either. They are nothing but Exacta and Pentax wannabes. Nothing new, just hardware and software packaged to last you a couple years until they release a new version. Wonder why people fall for that when they could be using a perfectly fine SLR from 1959 ;)
DeleteI think Sony probably threaten to sue him, if he doesn't remove that video. I wish I could see it. I know he signed an NDA, so they have him by the balls.
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