Eastman Kodak Co.’s momentous announcement this week that it was exiting the digital camera business did not come out of the blue.
One big clue came in the summer of 2011, when the company said it was looking to sell a folder of 1,100 patents having to do with digital imaging.
Kodak also spent 2011 focusing on a digital camera business strategy that included deliberately selling fewer cameras as it concentrated on profitable models and markets. Because of that strategy, company sales of digital capture devices were down about 6 percent for the first nine months of 2011.
Many of Kodak’s key camera competitors are having their own struggles, according to recent financial filings, though their business issues seem more temporary than the years-old problems Kodak has had in making a profit from digital cameras.
For 2011, Canon Inc. digital camera sales — which includes both point-and-shoots and digital single lens reflex cameras — were off nearly 5 percent from 2010. And camera sales in the fourth quarter of 2011, which included the usually lucrative holiday shopping season, were off more than 8 percent.
Canon said many of its problems were tied to last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which made manufacturing and obtaining components problematic. For this year, Canon is expecting camera sales to increase more than 17 percent over 2011.
Sony Corp. similarly pointed to natural disasters — in this case the recent Thailand floods — as it said earlier this month that it expects overall consumer product sales to be down this fiscal year from earlier projections. According to Sony, the floods are affecting digital imaging products such as cameras, as well as personal computer sales.
Casio Computer Co. also said Thai flood damages to component suppliers will hurt its digital camera business in the current quarter.
Fujifilm Holdings, meanwhile, said that while digital camera sales in its most recent quarter were strong, overall sales in its imaging solutions business were down about 3 percent due to international currency issues. It said its digital camera sales goal this fiscal year is 13 million units, which would be about 2 million more than last year.