Olympus as a whole is a healthy and profitable company, but its imaging division is having a hard time making a profit. You can download the report for the entire fiscal year and 4th quarter at olympus-global.com.
As is to be expected compact cameras are selling worse and worse. Fortunately Olympus is gaining ground on the mirrorless side of things. Responsible for this are OM-D series cameras and the new PEN-F as well as M. Zuiko Digital Pro lenses.
Olympus has managed to reduce the loss of its imaging division considerably in FY2016 and expects to break even in FY2017.
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Change — always things are changing. Guess it can be hard to figure out in time what changes need to be made.
No one knows what is affecting the imaging market. Compact cameras being made obsolete by smartphones seems to be a no-brainer. But it’s hard to figure out why the interchangeable lens cameras are doing worse every year.
3 reasons:
Do people (really) need Compact/MILC/DSLR quality for facebook/instagram/etc.?
Do people (really) want to carry Compact/MILC/DSLR when they have a smartphone in the pocket?
Do Compact/MILC/DSLR offer the same or similar “connectivity” (for sharing pictures) as smartfones?
IMHO, decrease in compact cameras is obvious, but the same fate will meet DSLR/MILC: “pro” for professionals, and nothing for others.
I think they don’t.
I do, but I guess the majority of people doesn’t.
I don’t really need that picture, because I don’t upload anything before doing at least a bit of post processing.
I’m not so sure about that. IMO there will always be enough amateurs that need something better than a phone but don’t want to or can’t afford to shell out a lot of cash for “pro” gear.