Canon has 93 reasons why you shouldn't use a smartphone

Canon's lens catalogue has always been a reason why Canon is successful in the marketplace.  Aisa Nikkei Review goes through the lens catalogue, Canon's core advantage over the upstart smartphone industry and how Canon continues to stay relevant.

We tend to get caught up and forget just how successful Canon was, and how successful especially the EF mount has been. Closing in on 140 million EF lenses, there is no other lens mount in the world as popular as the EF mount.  Six developers (lens developers: Shingo Hayakawa, Seiichi Kashiwaba, Junichi Murakami; camera developers: Yasuhiko Shiomi, Yasuo Suda, Shoji Kaihara) have been involved in the development of the EOS system since it began in the early 1980s.  They talk about the early challenges of the EOS system in this interview.

This article by Asia Nikkei Review discusses some of Canon's lens technologies and Canon's positioning;

TOKYO -- Quite a few photography buffs will tell you: The lens makes the camera. And for storied single-lens reflex camera manufacturers like Canon, lenses might be the secret to surviving the era of smartphone ubiquity, too.

The market for digital cameras peaked in 2010 and has been shrinking ever since. As smartphone cameras improve, fewer and fewer consumers see a need to lug around an SLR, or even a compact point-and-shoot. Shipments of single-lens cameras fell 11.1% on the year in 2016, by volume.

In response, camera companies are looking for a new niche, with features not found in smartphone cameras. Lenses -- from super telephoto models to ultrawide angles -- offer the manufacturers myriad ways to differentiate themselves. 

Over three decades, Canon has produced more than 130 million EF (Electro-Focus)-mount lenses for its SLRs, carving out a leading market share in Japan. The country's lens market has been shrinking since 2012, but this year it is expected to return to growth, and Canon is once again asserting itself with a wide variety of products.