Update: The recent Fujifilm quarterly earnings report from July 30, 2015 upholds the instant photo camera business forecast:
"The number of sales in volume of instant camera in 1Q was 1.03 million and the target volume for this fiscal year remains the same at 4.60 million"
The second image states "387 million units" while the graph shows slightly below 4 million units. I guess they forgot a decimal separator.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing that the 387 million is a cumulative sales for all Instax system cameras.
DeleteI think it is an error due to converting Japanes numbers to Wester-style numbers.
DeleteDoes anyone know if this is the Polaroid or the Kodak chemistry? The Kodak chemistry produced far more permanent images.
ReplyDeleteFujifilm has been making instant film for a very long time. I remember 4x5 inch film packs for large format cameras, used to adjust exposure and focus before shooting on film.
ReplyDeleteThe Polaroid film was cheaper and what we used. It did lose detail in low contrast areas though (jumping out of focus). Gimmick was better in that aspect so it will have been another chemistry.
This must have been some 20 years ago.
There are so many issues that are just plain wrong with this business model/preso it hurts me to look at it. Clearly, Fujifilm does not get the transition from boomers to Gen X'ers to Millennials. "You can make prints just as you have in the past" tagline? Really? Manny A. if you are reading, I suggest you hire my 18 yr. old daughter as a product manager. Instagram and Snapchat own this market and no one wants to go backward into paying up the nose for prints that don't last and have little perceived value. The Polaroid to Instagram trend in the US is a niche market.
ReplyDeleteWhat a strange comment! Fujifilm is posting backwards-looking sales figures (up to last year) which show significant growth. Clearly this is very much a niche market in the digital/social media age, but so what? There's nothing wrong with a highly-profitable niche.
DeleteIt's also easy to find Lomo cameras that are completely targeting a hipster niche that wants "lo-fi" film. Should both these companies give up because theirs will never be the dominant photography tools?
Vinyl record sales are also up. In the US, Q1 sales increased 53%, with last year's sales of vinyl albums at $320.8 million being 50% higher than 2013. Again, is vinyl going to be the #1, or even the #2 medium for music? Certainly not! But that doesn't mean that someone making money selling it is stupid and wrong.
p.s. Fujifilm made the transition from film to digital rather gracefully (unlike Kodak and Polaroid). Their X-series mirrorless cameras are among the most highly regarded. I suspect they understand that instant film is a niche segment for them.