Nikon and Canon's supply chain unable to meet demand!

According to Chris Chessman from Amateur Photographer, the massive demand for the Nikon D80 / D40 and Canon's popular 400D / Rebel XTi digital SLRs has meant their supply chain could not cope with the huge orders. The upsurge occurred during the 2006 Christmas break.

All three cameras are price competitive entry to amateur DSLR cameras that were released last year and had extremely positive reviews.

A Canon spokesman told Amateur Photographer that all models in Canon's range of Digital SLR cameras are in good supply with the exception of the new Canon EOS 400D. This is a result of extremely high demand, not only in the UK and European market but worldwide. He added that they are in constant communication with the Canon EOS 400D production facility to push capacity so that all their customers' orders are fulfilled as quickly as possible.

Nikon UK's group marketing manager Jeremy Gilbert said the demand for digital SLRs 'outstripped industry forecasts' - affecting 'popular models' including the Nikon D80 and the Nikon D40.

In an interview with Amateur Photographer, he said this reflected a "huge resurgence" in DSLR photography and the positive state of the market.
Pointing out that Nikon UK supplied more DSLRs to the market than the year before Gilbert added: 'Capacity hasn't enabled us to deliver to the volume that is really required… There are more customers than there is product.'

Speaking in general terms Gilbert told us: "The DSLR market growth is currently tracking at 80% over the same period last year, exceeding industry forecasts. As a consequence, there has been some product shortage."

A shortage of top-selling models was believed to be a key factor behind lower than expected sales figures at high street chain Jessops over Christmas, where like-for-like sales fell 6.9% for the six weeks to 5 January 2007, compared to the same period the year before.

In a statement announcing its Christmas trading results Jessops said: 'While demand for digital SLR cameras remained strong over Christmas, disappointingly we were unable to satisfy all of this demand due to major worldwide supply shortages on the most popular digital SLR models from the two leading camera manufacturers.'

Jessops claimed: 'This compounded the like-for-like sales decline in the period and has impacted profits.'

A Jessops spokesman declined to discuss the extent of the digital SLR shortfall or tell us exactly which models affected its profits.
Canon launched the 400D last September, telling us that - in the following month - it was reported to be the second-best selling digital camera according to figures it received from market analyst GfK.

Jessops said its Christmas trading results were also affected by the market for digital compact cameras which, it reports, 'continues to be soft'.




Source: Infodigital camera