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Industry Rumors: Coronavirus can be final blow for camera industry
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  • Huge wave coming and lot of small businesses won't make it. Especially special food related, until they will move online for a while.

  • Organizers of Musikmesse 2020 – an international trade fair for the music industry – have announced that they are postponing the event over Coronavirus concerns.

  • NAB cancelling probability is around 98% now.

    Hit will be much harder on video related equipment manufacturers compared to universal cameras, as all of this is being used in places where lot of people are present (film crews, wedding, conferences and such).

    Around 30% of photo/video wedding guys won't make it to 2021.

  • Family Minister Elena Bonetti said Thursday that the government was studying ways to help families after it decided to close Italy's schools and universities until the middle of March because of the coronavirus emergency.

  • If they postpone "No Time to Die" until November, COVID-20 The Sequel might be here. If leaked copy on Internet is released in May, "No Time to Die" would be dead, :)

  • Some analysts believe COVID-19 could already result in a loss of at least $5 billion from diminished box office revenue and impacted production. That number could grow if moviegoing falters in other markets, including the U.S., where there have been 100 confirmed cases and six deaths to date.

    Nice thing, as Hollywood directly stand behind dumbing down population and telling that science and hard work are not necessary. Now it is time to eat their own food.

  • Final blow to cinema industry? Straight to Netflix next?

    James Bond premiere postponed for over half a year.

    https://variety.com/2020/film/news/james-bond-no-time-to-die-coronavirus-1203523859/

    “No Time to Die” will be postponed until November, the James Bond sequel’s backers announced on Wednesday.

    The film was originally supposed to be released internationally on April 2 and in the U.S. on April 10. However, the spread of coronavirus has led to closures of theaters in major markets such as Italy, South Korea, China and Japan. That could have been a major blow to “No Time to Die,” which cost more than $200 million to produce and millions more to market. Given that hefty budget, the film will need to perform well in international markets if it wants to make a profit.

  • Some cameras top management leaks

    • Main idea now is to hide exposure to Chinese parts, as far as it is possible
    • Top managers want to save as much workforce in Japan, especially managers despite little reasons to do so
    • New products announcement in first half can be very low, from 2 to 3 times less than even last year anemic levels
    • Their main hope is for free Japanese central bank and government injections
  • Google I/O 2020 also cancelled.

  • Small conclusions from random talks

    • Notebook market can almost half in less than 2 months if virus will continue to spread
    • Normal, non gaming desktop market can surge as much as 200% in April-May, but due to shortages it can be just hopes
    • Smartphones, especially top will be hit especially hard, Apple sales can drop 30-35% in March already and more in April. Samsung will compensate with budget stuff. Smartphones market almost fully depend on time people spend traveling, going and also doing nothing at workplace. At prolonged home sitting home people quickly realize that smartphone sucks as even info consumption device.
  • Up to 80% of all tech announcement will be postponed in March-June time.

    Chinese factories will be unable to make up to 90% of all new products in real volume, and up to 90% of new parts.

    Starting March already we see 40-50% of usual announcement being not made.

  • NVIDIA today announced that their yearly GPU Technology Conference (GTC) will be held online, instead of locally at the San Jose Convention Center as previously planned. The company cites Covid-19 (colloquially called Coronavirus) concerns as the root cause - the health of both its professionals and attendees is paramount for the company, and as such, an online event seems more inline with the state of the world.

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev

    You are right, of course. ;)

  • @Eno

    Note that it is shipment to channel (dealers and such, not consumers).

    So, even February data won't show all horror.

    For cameras/lenses it will be data for March and especially April.

  • CIPA reports 19% sales drop for January 2020

    Cipa published the January camera shipment report. System camera sales dropped by 19%. And with the Coronavirus halting production and affecting the entire world economy it’s highly likely sales will drop much further.

    http://www.cipa.jp/stats/documents/e/dw-202001_e.pdf

    CIPA.png
    700 x 521 - 111K
  • Canon has announced it will be suspending operations at five of its plants on Japan’s Kyushu island due to supply shortages from China caused by COVID-19 (Coronavirus).

    The five factories, located in the Oita, Miyazaki and Nagasaki prefectures, produce cameras and other photographic gear. The manufacturing facilities will shut down from March 2 to March 13, with Nikkei.

    Who could have though. Efficient managers outsourced lot of stuff and closed and sold domestic factories getting new nice cars for bonuses.

  • Global notebook unit shipments for the first quarter of 2020 are estimated to plunge 29-36% than the 17% projected earlier, as severe labor and components shortages and stagnant logistics arising from the coronavirus outbreak are stalling the supply chain in China, which commands over 90% of global notebook production.

  • LG Display has temporarily halted work at a smartphone screen factory in Gumi, South Korea after a bank worker near the facility tested positive for COVID-19. The company expected to resume production on March 3rd.

  • Parks and scenic tourists spots have reopened in China and you can bring your camera :) Visits are limited to anywhere from 30-500 people an hour depending on the location. Restaurants are also reopening but no large groups, only two people per table. Guests are screened at all venues for temperature readings.

  • This year’s annual Game Developers Conference has been postponed amid growing concern about the international coronavirus outbreaks.

  • Small aka whisper rumor.

    It seems like Japanese companies outsourced much more lens production then they like to tell you.

    One guy I talked (from Japan) told that even some super premium glass is actually made in China now, and Japanese factory make only small special batches and is shown to journalists. As Chinese factory can make glass 3-4x cheaper compared to outdated Japanese machines.

  • As cases are likely to increase in the next months, Photokina seems more likely to be cancelled.