It was in this morning's paper (Japanese language), with a pie-chart of domestic market share of digital camera sales from stores (for 2010). In %: Canon 20.7, Sony 14.6, Casio 12.7, Panasonic 12.5, Niko 12.3, FujiFilm 9.9, Olympus 9.0, Hoya (Pentax) 3.9, Ricoh 2.7, Other 1.7.
Might not be a bad thing for us Pentax devotees. Hoya initially purchased Pentax mainly for it's medical division (which makes some very clever gear) and was probably always going to sell off the photo divn. As such they never really invested that much in camera development. To be fair, to have released the K-5 645D was actually pretty significant. However Ricoh may be a little more focussed on the Pentax photo division.
However Ricoh may be a little more focussed on the Pentax photo division.
This is what I was thinking. I was working for Konica-Minolta (in their office equipment division) when they surprised everyone by getting out of the camera business. Sony appears to have done well with the camera line. Acquisitions are not always a bad thing.
