The Japanese website BCNranking displayed the latest data about the Japanese camera market. There are a couple of interesting points:
Most sold cameras with interchangeable lenses (May 2011):
The first two position are held by the two entry level cameras from Nikon and Canon. The best placed Sony camera is the [shoplink 3003]Sony NEX-5[/shoplink] on Pos. 7 with 5.3% volume share. In Japan NEX cameras are more popular than the Sony SLT and DSRL cameras. Take into consideration that in Japan one third of all sold system cameras are mirrorless!
Mirrorless Market Share (January to May 2011):
Olympus volume share is 37.95% of the whole mirrorless camera. Right behind you find Sony (32.02%) and than Panasonic (30.03%). The year 2010 ended with following shares Panasonic (38.7%), Sony (32.2%), Olympus (29.1%). As you see Sony didn’t gain any market share. I guess one of the main reason could be the lack of new NEX lenses :(
Market share for all interchangeable cameras:
If you count the all interchangeable cameras (Mirrorless and DSLR) than Canon leads with 29.3%, followed by Nikon (27.4%), Sony (15.0%), Olympus (12.7%) and Panasonic (9.7%). Canon and Nikon both loosed market share during the last months. Sony made small steps forward but I guess the upcoming new A77 A65 and NEX-7 can give them a new sales boost.
You can’t have those detailed sales details in other countries. The only very unreliable and partial measurement for non japanese countries are the Amazon TOP sold camera rankings:
Amazon US rankings (Click here)
Amazon DE rankings (Click here)
Amazon UK rankings (Click here)
Amazon FR rankings (Click here)
Amazon IT rankings (Click here)