Samsung to stop producing cameras and lenses?

Me agrees with Reid that the NX platform is dead but that Samsung will continue making the consumer grade cameras and camcorders with fixed lenses. Which is a reasonable strategy for them to take going forward, as I have suggested for a while now.


“We quickly adapt to market needs and demands. In Europe, we will be discontinuing sales of NX1 cameras for now since there is already much better and upgraded cameras. This is specific to the region – and is not necessarily reflective of conditions in other markets. We will continue to thoroughly evaluate market conditions and will make further adjustments to maintain our competitiveness in emerging Camera categories.”
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http://www.eoshd.com/2015/11/samsun...-announce-complete-discontinuation-in-europe/
 
Here's another twist to the story. The same poster who jotted down the quoted dialog decided to pursue the conversation with the Samsung rep a bit further. And obtained a correction of sorts.

"Let me rephrase what I've mentioned a while ago that we discontinued manufacturing nx1 since we already producing a much better or upgraded version, and it was developed by taking consideration some of the faults or issue from the nx1 model."
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So, are they making NX2 with mo' bettah' stuff already? You'd think, if it was already in production, they'd be advertising it for the Christmas shopping season. Or maybe it'll be presented at the CES or Photo Plus. The story gets curiouser and curiouser.
 
^ But it makes a lot of sense. The NX1 was announced in Sep 2014, and I would expect Samsung to have fast product cycles.
 
That's a bit of an overstatement for a camera that never sold that well...

Right now the NX500 is no.64 on the amazon.com bestseller list, just behind the D7100 and the 70D, which by now have basically faded away. The NX1 is not even in the top 100.
On the mirrorless list, NX500 is no.9 and NX1 is no.50.

Amazon.de doesn't have an "interchangeable lens" list. On the mirrorless list, the NX500 is no.21 and the NX1 is no.32.

It's a great camera, but it's not selling that much...
 
NX500 is the lowest priced 4K ILC out there, at $650, including the 18-50mm kit lens. G7 runs ~ $150 more with a similar kit lens and/but it's only an MFT based unit. From an engineering POV, Samsung has done little wrong but their product is just not selling well. Let's see what their marketing comes up with. From my old business/marketing classes, a company has to make what it can sell, not sell what it can make.
 
Samsung is relatively new to cameras, and stepped into a crowded market with Sony and the micro-4/3 consortium tearing up the market that's been for a long time belonged to Canon and Nikon, who've apparently been resting on their laurels. It's pretty much the same sort of situation that AJA ran into when they launched the Cion, though Samsung has some advantages in their favor, like being one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers in the world, with one of the most advanced fabs in the business. In point of fact, Samsung's production volume is significantly larger than even Intel's.

IMO if Samsung has the willpower, they could make a strong competitor to Sony, which would be a good thing because it would encourage Sony to keep their development moving forward.
 
Tamerlin said:
... IMO if Samsung has the willpower, they could make a strong competitor to Sony, which would be a good thing because it would encourage Sony to keep their development moving forward.
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Here's the problem (it's Nikon but shows others in the various links within the body of the article)

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.u...atest-camera-maker-to-suffer-sales-drop-65540

The camera market is tanking big time. The low end is getting eaten up by smartphones and the ILC's are getting so good for the casual and even the enthusiast use that a replacement cycle is getting longer and longer. And there's a tremendous overcapacity of the manufacturing space as total global shipments have dropped from ~ 120,000,000 units in 2012 to about 45,000,000 in 2015. And the trend is - better multiple sensor/multiple lens smartphone cameras rising to the point where their quality is getting close to the low end ILC's. And, on the high end, as Samuel's link showed, four year old 5D MKIII is still going strong, meaning that an existing 5D MKIII owner has very little incentive to purchase a newer model. Once again, following the trends - NX2 (if such will ever exist) should be able to offer an APS-C BSI sensor with 30-35 MPX and an internal 10-bit 4K in HEVC or external 10-bit Log for ~ $1,000 and it should be able to offer it right now. With these specs, the replacement for a casual/enthusiast user then becomes virtually superfluous. Its' back to the pre-digital era where a 35mm camera lasted decades until it was completely broken down. The only difference is that, back then, there was a lot of money in making and developing film. These days, not so much.

PS. If there's a reason for Samsung to stay in the biz, it's car cameras. You figure, with 70+ million cars sold and 4-6 cameras per car, there's big future there. All the autonomous vehicles will be stuffed with the electronics. Photo-video is then is to bide time.
 
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This was Twitted a week ago.

Samsung IS shuttering their camera division effective 2016. They are withholding announcement from the USA because we are their biggest customer and they don't want to lose potential Christmas season sales. My contact with their USA corporate and South Korean main corporate reps gave me confirmation.
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http://tmi.me/1fa4dW
 
DLD said:
The camera market is tanking big time. The low end is getting eaten up by smartphones and the ILC's are getting so good for the casual and even the enthusiast use that a replacement cycle is getting longer and longer. And there's a tremendous overcapacity of the manufacturing space as total global shipments have dropped from ~ 120,000,000 units in 2012 to about 45,000,000 in 2015. And the trend is - better multiple sensor/multiple lens smartphone cameras rising to the point where their quality is getting close to the low end ILC's. And, on the high end, as Samuel's link showed, four year old 5D MKIII is still going strong, meaning that an existing 5D MKIII owner has very little incentive to purchase a newer model. Once again, following the trends - NX2 (if such will ever exist) should be able to offer an APS-C BSI sensor with 30-35 MPX and an internal 10-bit 4K in HEVC or external 10-bit Log for ~ $1,000 and it should be able to offer it right now. With these specs, the replacement for a casual/enthusiast user then becomes virtually superfluous. Its' back to the pre-digital era where a 35mm camera lasted decades until it was completely broken down. The only difference is that, back then, there was a lot of money in making and developing film. These days, not so much.

PS. If there's a reason for Samsung to stay in the biz, it's car cameras. You figure, with 70+ million cars sold and 4-6 cameras per car, there's big future there. All the autonomous vehicles will be stuffed with the electronics. Photo-video is then is to bide time.
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Good point. You're right, the market IS tanking. They'd have to kick Canikon's booty out of the market to be another Sony... tough time to launch a camera!
 
I scoured a few web sites last night, since there is a lot of Samsung related chatter everywhere.

Two posts - made by the long time site members but not the administrators, so this did not have the official imprimatur - caught my attention. of several hundred of job openings for Samsung South Korea, none was in the camera division and a veteran executive hired to run their Euro distribution network only a year ago has departed.

Circumstantial evidence, mind you .. but there's way too much smoke, putting the "we already have a better camera" in a different context. Still, I'd be surprised if Samsung quits the photo-video entirely but not surprised if the consumer lines were rolled into the camcorder family. We should see soon. If they have nothing at the CES, it'll be a damning sign.
 
Essentially, the same statement made to a different German photo mag but in German.

„19. November 2015
In Deutschland beobachten wir seit längerer Zeit einen allmählichen Rückgang der Nachfrage nach Digitalkameras, Camcordern und entsprechendem Zubehör. Wir müssen uns den Anforderungen des Marktes anpassen und haben uns daher entschlossen, Verkauf und Marketing dieser Produkte schrittweise auslaufen zu lassen. Hierbei handelt es sich um eine Entscheidung, die nur den deutschen Markt betrifft.“
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Too bad. As a company, they were being very responsive to feature requests via firmware upgrades. I was looking forward to what they would come up with for their second larger camera attempt. Obviously their strength in chip manufacturing was a helping them kick some butt in the space. I speak more from a video perspective than a still perspective though. In my mind, the still space is crowded and overflowing with more than good enough images. I could see how it would be tough as I myself would not switch systems for my still work.
 
What's interesting to me is that a company that likely offered the best bang for the buck among the large size firms is dropping out. As I had mentioned, I'd have stuck to the fixed lens cameras and camcorders with 4K video. There should be room for the long zoom/small sensor, medium zoom/ medium sensor, medium zoom/APS-C sensor and large sensor/open source/PL mount models. And this decision is doubly strange coming from Samsung because they produce sensors, processors, glass, storage/media, batteries and the related electronics anyway. At the very worst, they could just package a 4K camcorder with a Samsung TV. But it looks like they're moving into the car technology and seeing the camera biz as a non-worthy competitor to their smartphone endeavors. That leaves the Japanese with 100% of the stills market, which is shrinking everywhere outside of the ILC's. And here we come to a full circle because Samsung can't sell their ILC's no matter how well they are reviewed. And so, when it relates to living without Samsung video, today it's Germany, tomorrow the world.
 
And now they're out of the Netherlands. Germany - and the German speaking part of Europe, with Austria and (parts of) Switzerland - is the largest single language Euro market. Since they're leaving that, the rest can't be far behind.
 
This is sort of Samsung related, since it is about the camera biz. Right now, Panasonic G7 (and GX8 and GH4) are on sale at various outfits. With a 14/42mm "kit" lens, the package deal is $600 and, with the 14-140mm, it's $900. And G7 was very highly rated by the DP Review at its old price (+$200). If this is the sign of things to come, it's great for the consumer but a death knell for a photo-video manufacturer.

PS. GX8 is offered at $1,000 (body only).
 
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