(news and commentary)
Canon today produced a press release in which the title contained basically all the information ("Canon holds No. 1 share of global interchangeable lens digital camera market for 10 consecutive years"). The asterisk and footnote say "based on a survey by Canon," but no further information about the claim is made.
The weird thing about this latest world-wide press release is that Canon actually first made the claim that their 2012 unit volume for interchangeable lens cameras was the tops back in March. Thus, someone could have simply said back then that this was the tenth consecutive year they could make that claim. Apparently they held off a month so that they could issue a press release about the obvious. Either that, or they were asleep at the wheel and nobody had actually counted.
We talk about "slow news days" in the media. Well, Canon is showing what happens on "slow marketing days." Basically they came out of the jungle for the moment, banged on their chest, made loud noises, then went back to their cubicles.
Update: I now count six photography sites that basically reprinted the press release. Chalk that up to a win for Canon PR. Not one of those sites commented on odd delay in releasing old information, the fact that Canon had to win back the leading market share from Nikon, how well that market share has held up (or not) over the 10 years, how Canon did the count, or why Canon would even want to trumpet this statistic all of the sudden (e.g. declining camera sales, and mirrorless camera growth).
