Canon to focus on mirrorless

Canon had its corporate strategy conference and while they are not optimistic about the camera market overall, they are certainly focusing their resources on mirrorless and as well, factory automation.  Long term Canon sees more of a focus on automotive and industrial applications of cameras.

On the other hand, among existing businesses, for cameras, which are mainly a consumer-oriented product, the overall market continues to shrink due to improvement in smartphone camera features. Even against this backdrop, however, we continue to see positive growth in mirrorless cameras, known for their compact and light-weight designs, thanks to improvements in performance, which is now on par with DSLRs. Although we have been taking a cautious approach to mirrorless cameras until recently, we have begun to successively launch strategic models, and will strive to further enhance our lineup going forward as well. The overall market will continue to shrink for some time, however, we will work to support our camera business by focusing management resources on the growing market segment of mirrorless cameras. Additionally, from a medium-term perspective, we will work to facilitate our aim to stabilize this business, promoting a shift to B2B, in such areas as automotive and industrial.