Sony Corp is working on measures to counter Kodak's strong offensive in the US market and is on track to hit its target of shipping 14 million digital cameras this business year, a company executive said on Thursday. According to research firm IDC, Sony's share of the US market for point-and-shoot digital cameras fell to 19.4 percent of all shipments in 2004 from 21.7 percent in 2003, losing the top spot to Eastman Kodak, whose share vaulted to 22 percent from 18 percent.
Analysts have attributed Kodak's gains in the world's largest digital camera market to lower selling prices and add-on products, such as its Easy Share docking station, which allows consumers to print out snapshots without using a PC.
"Kodak's brand image in the US is strong and the docking station is a new approach to the market that we don't have. It's a very good approach," Masashi Imamura, senior general manager of Sony's personal imaging division, told Reuters.
"As the market matures it is up to each maker to come up with new ways to attract customers and stimulate the industry's growth," he added, speaking after a briefing held to unveil a new ultra-thin compact camera due to go on sale next month.
Kodak's offensive has been gaining momentum in recent months.
It grabbed 26 percent of the US market in the October-December quarter when its shipments surged 61 percent from a year earlier to 2.42 million. By comparison, Sony's shipments were flat in the quarter at 1.6 million and its share dropped to 17.3 percent from 21.5 percent, according to IDC.
Imamura said Sony was contemplating several steps to help bolster its position in the US He declined to go into specifics but would not rule out the possibility that Sony would introduce a product similar to Kodak's popular printing device.
"A docking station is one idea," Imamura said.
Imamura said Sony was on track to meet its forecast of shipping 14 million digital cameras world-wide in the current business year to Mar. 31, a target that was revised down in January from its initial estimate of 15 million.
Slower-than-expected sales of digital cameras was one factor behind the company's downward revision in January of its group sales and operating profit forecasts for 2004/05.
Sony, which runs neck-and-neck with Canon Inc for top share of the global digital camera market, shipped 10 million digital cameras in 2003/04.
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