Canon is planning to lower its profit forecasts for 2019 by 20% due to declining camera sales, Nikkei reports.
An article in Nikkei Asian Review says Canon is lowering its estimated profits for the current fiscal year by approximately 50 billion yen.
Nikkei goes on to say that the decline is due to the rise of smartphone camera technology. As we’ve seen with cameras like the Huawei P30 Pro, the AI and computational photography technology in smartphones can produce very high quality images.
The translated Nikkei report goes on to say:
‘Canon will lower its forecast for the fiscal year ending December 2019. Consolidated operating profit (US GAAP), which indicates the mainstay of the business, is likely to decrease by 20% over the previous fiscal year to just over 270 billion yen. About 50 billion yen lower than the previous forecast. The shrinking of the digital camera market and the deterioration of the semiconductor market due to the functional improvement of smartphones (smartphones) will hit hard.’
Via DPReview