How do they rank in size?

This may be more than slightly off the subject but I'm wondering how Canon, Nikon and Olympus compare regarding their corporate size? I suppose I could do some Google searching for an answer but I'm feeling particularly lazy. Are there any business types out there who already know the answer?

More to the subject, I'm also one of the many who are waiting not-quite-patiently for a good review or two before I make the leap to E-510 land.

by employment

Nikon 19,944
Olympus 33,022
Canon 118,499
Sony 162,800
Panasonic 334,402
--
Riley

not everything that counts, can be counted

I know you asked for corporate comparison, but do you want size of the camera division or the size of the whole company( which was answered in the above post?
--
Evolt1 with grip, Evolt500, F-Fifty
14/45, 14/54, 40/150 50/200

JoeDave said:

I know you asked for corporate comparison, but do you want size of
the camera division or the size of the whole company( which was
answered in the above post?

Click to expand...

Does that list of company employees include any subcontracted assembly factories in China,Thailand, Malaysia etc

Nikon 19,944 - Almost only Photographic / medical
Olympus 33,022 - all sorts of specialist optics and dictation as well
Canon 118,499 - Add printers, copiers etc to that
Sony 162,800 - absolutely everything electronic
Panasonic 334,402 absolutely everything elect with White goods added

IMO I'd trust Canon the most as a company for continuing to produce cameras long term over the others - the Two Big corps could drop photographic at the drop of a hat if they decided and not know a dent, Oly and Nikon are small enough to go under.......

Then there's Fuji - a weird and TRUE photographic company like a Japanese version of how Kodak was making everything from Compacts to Frankencam DSLRs, from film to Minilabs etc.

--
Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

Thanks to everyone for their insight. I got the answers I was looking for. I had no idea there was such a huge leap between Olympus and Canon!

Adam-T said:

Kodak
Frankencam >

Click to expand...

Just remember a Frankenanything can normally crush a lesser 'normal' item


And I have news for you that will chill your bones!

PS - has the postman arrived yet?

G.

sparky52t said:

This may be more than slightly off the subject but I'm wondering
how Canon, Nikon and Olympus compare regarding their corporate
size?

Click to expand...

Canon is very much the largest company among the traditional camera manufacturers, doing about 30-35 billion dollars annually in sales lately.

Nikon and Olympus are quite similar in size, on revenue terms, both doing somewhere in the range of 8-10 billion dollars annually in sales lately. Olympus is the larger of the two, by 2-3 billion.

Adam-T said:

Nikon 19,944 - Almost only Photographic / medical

Click to expand...

Actually, Nikon does not really have a substantial medical business. Its other main business, besides photographic products, is semiconductor manufacturing equpment. Nikon is one of the two leading companies in the world that makes the machines that are the central component in the process of manufacturing a computer chip. The machines, which operate optically, are called steppers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepper

At one time in the early to mid 1990s, the stepper business actually accounted for 60% of Nikon's total revenue, with photography accounting for only about 25%. Lately, photo has been about 50% of Nikon's business, with steppers accounting for about 30%.

Big Ga said:

Just remember a Frankenanything can normally crush a lesser
'normal' item

Click to expand...

Only when its doing the Timewarp ;--

Big Ga said:

And I have news for you that will chill your bones!

Click to expand...

you've waterlogged an E1 ? - bought a 1DS Mk2 ? - found a failing in the E400 which makes anyone who's recently bought one look a total fool ?

Big Ga said:

PS - has the postman arrived yet?

Click to expand...

Bank transfers take 3 days to clear - too many people NOT using Natwest ..

--
Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

Adam-T said:

Only when its doing the Timewarp ;--

Click to expand...

Its just 35mm to the left .... and then FF to the right ...

Adam-T said:

Adam-T said:

And I have news for you that will chill your bones!

Click to expand...

you've waterlogged an E1 ? - bought a 1DS Mk2 ? - found a failing
in the E400 which makes anyone who's recently bought one look a
total fool ?

Click to expand...

None of the above!
We now have ....... BRIDE OF FRANKENCAMERA!!
They make a lovely pair.

I just can't tell which is the male and which is the female, they're just so alike

(ps - a long story but it was bought way before our 5D conversation. I didn't think it was going to arrive and after the sale of the 20D I've been doing some serious thinking, but its here now. Mad? me ??? I'll drop you a mail later)
G.

Eamon Hickey said:

Nikon and Olympus are quite similar in size, on revenue terms, both
doing somewhere in the range of 8-10 billion dollars annually in
sales lately. Olympus is the larger of the two, by 2-3 billion.

Click to expand...

Those take non-photographic business into account, right? Otherwise, I'll be very surprised Oly's revenue is higher the Nikon's.
--
John

Big Ga said:

We now have ....... BRIDE OF FRANKENCAMERA!!
They make a lovely pair.

Click to expand...

Ugh - not anoher Sigma 14C - if you ditched them both you could afford a real 5D !!

Big Ga said:

sale of the 20D I've been doing some serious thinking, but its here
now. Mad? me ??? I'll drop you a mail later)

Click to expand...

My 20D is going also - I hate the things, this one focusses better than most with fast glass but it can't be relied on - I'd rather take a Nikon or an Oly with a LENS as a backup to the 5D than any of the consumer canons bar another 5D or an old D60 . it's Frustrating that such a fast sharp camera with magnificent battery life as the 20D should have to be crippled with such a duff AF system (I've used about 9 in all since they came out and they're all as bad - the 350D and 10D are worse!) . the E1 and the old D60 may be slow and hunt in low light but they'll hit the spot every time with an F2 lens.......

I'm hoping the E400 is as accurate as the E1 and that they didn't do a 10D on us (speed over accuracy)

--
Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

Paul D said:

JoeDave said:

I know you asked for corporate comparison, but do you want size of
the camera division or the size of the whole company( which was
answered in the above post?

Click to expand...

Does that list of company employees include any subcontracted
assembly factories in China,Thailand, Malaysia etc

Click to expand...

the short answer is probably NO

Their only duty to the Japan specific fin reporting is to name the companies within their corporate umbrella. For various reasons production is conducted at varying extents overseas from Japan and that income can be kept terrestrially specific being beyond Japan. This may be kept for reasons of development, re-building, R&D, employment responsibilities such as pension schemes etc etc.

The corporate systems differ in size and the degree of interoperability, for example Olympus Medical Imaging utilises and holds patents on telecentric imaging with principles familiar to most 4/3rds users, and such technology is clearly kindred to 4/3rds.

Add to this that the diversification of interests into other business provides the capability to fund various R&D projects that cross individual business boundaries.

Business is so integrated it may not be possible to separate individual businesses, where you could cite the Canon fin reporting posted here some months ago, and which included their operations with business systems such as scanners printers fax machines and other business interests, clearly non camera specific. I saw no attempt to extract purely camera sales from that data set.

--
Riley

not everything that counts, can be counted

Reporting post the March fin review for the 2006 figures was followed by this report in May. After a fairly lacklustre few years Olympus is on the move with the second phase of the four-thirds experiment

http://www.mcall.com/business/local/all-olympus.5840950may10,0,3647142.story?coll=all-businesslocal-hed

Olympus forecasts growth
It predicts strength in single-lens reflex cameras, medical gear.
By Pavel Alpeyev Of Bloomberg News

Olympus Corp., the world's biggest maker of endoscopes, expects profit will rise to the highest level ever for a second straight year, on demand for medical gear and digital cameras.

Net income will probably increase to 50 billion yen or $417 million in the year ending March 2008, from a record 47.8 billion yen a year earlier, the company said Wednesday. Sales may rise 8.3 percent to 1.15 trillion yen, or $9.5 billion using Wednesday afternoon's exchange rate.

The company's shares reached record levels on the Nikkei stock exchange in Japan.

Olympus America, the North American operations of Olympus, is headquartered in Upper Saucon Township. The company employs about 650 people here.

The company is focusing on medical equipment and higher-margin single-lens reflex cameras to surpass last year's earnings as Olympus faces mounting competition from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Sony Corp. in digital cameras. Revenue from the main medical gear business will climb 7.5 percent and single-lens reflex camera shipments will probably double this year, Olympus said.

The global market for SLR cameras will increase about 83 percent to 10.5 million units this year and the number of competitors in the industry will continue to be limited, Hisashi Moriyama, an analyst at JP Morgan Securities Asia, wrote in a report. He has an 'overweight' rating on the company.

Olympus, based in Tokyo, forecast sales from the visual business, which includes cameras and lenses, will gain 12 percent to 330 billion yen, or $2.7 billion, in the year ending next March. It will account for 29 percent of total revenue.

Operating profit in the unit will probably decline 8.1 percent to 25 billion yen, or $208.2 million, as the company increases spending on the development and promotion of three new SLR models.

Shipments of all cameras may rise 20 percent to 11.5 million units in the year to March 2008, Olympus said. SLR shipments will probably jump to 500,000 units this year, the company said.

For the year ended March 31, net income jumped 67 percent and revenue increased 8.6 percent to 1.06 trillion yen, or $8.8 billion.

--
Riley

not everything that counts, can be counted

Yes, those numbers are total revenues for all their businesses.

Olympus's camera business is smaller than Nikon's, but not by all that much. Olympus sells a few million more point-and-shoots than Nikon every year. Going just on memory here -- so I could be off by some amount -- I think Olympus's camera business did about 2.5 billion in sales last fiscal year, and Nikon's did about 3.5 billion.

John Yu said:

Those take non-photographic business into account, right?
Otherwise, I'll be very surprised Oly's revenue is higher the
Nikon's.
--

Click to expand...