It's probably no surprise, but Nikon's hot DSLR sales continue and are one of the drivers of the financial good news Nikon reported today for the first half of its 2008 fiscal year (ends March 31, 2008). Profits for the Imaging division are now forecast as almost 50% higher than previously expected.
Because stepper sales in the Precision Tool division continue to have their ups and downs, the Imaging division is increasingly becoming the larger and more significant engine driving Nikon's overall results.
DSLR sales at Nikon's last estimate were expected to be about 1.4m units for the first half, and came in slightly higher at 1.47m units. The forecast for the remainder of the fiscal year has been increased from 1.2m units to 1.53m units. This puts Nikon on pace for 3m unit year, an increase of over 10% from previous expectations and about 50% growth from last year (that's higher than the market's overall growth). Canon's fiscal year is one quarter off from Nikon's. In it they currently expect to sell 3.2m DSLR units. Equalizing the periods you get Nikon shipping 2.9m units. So Nikon has considerably closed the market share gap in DSLRs and now runs nearly neck and neck with Canon. That translates to 45% market share for Canon in calendar 2007, versus 41% market share for Nikon (using my best guess on final DSLR sales for the year as CIPA's last estimates are clearly wrong; for the first nine months of 2007 Nikon's DSLR market share has been 40.66437% percent using the actual shipping numbers).
Coolpix did slightly better than I expected, selling 4m units in the first half of the year, and Nikon expects to do about that well in the second half. Somehow Nikon appears to be pushing Coolpix sales up modestly from last year (8m versus 7.5m units). Still, I'd say this is the weakest part of the Imaging division's product line, by far. By contrast, Canon will sell nearly 22m compact cameras in their current fiscal year. Unlike DSLRs, Nikon is not closing ground on the leaders in compacts.
Meanwhile lens sales have also increased considerably, with the current yearly forecast hitting a remarkable 4m units (that's a huge increase from last year, and a half million units more than previously forecast).
Here are the new estimates based upon first half results:
| Item | Fiscal 06 | Fiscal 07 | Fiscal 08 est. |
| Total Sales | 416.6b yen | 449.8b | 550b |
| Operating Income | 34.4b yen | 45.7b | 74b |
| DSLR units | 1,340,000 | 2,090,000 | 3,000,000 |
| Coolpix units | 7,110,000 | 5,920,000 | 8,000,000 |
| Lenses | 2,020,000 | 2,640,000 | 4,000,000 |