p.5 #1 · Will Nikon build anymore DSLR's, or are they done with DSLR's?
Your post about byThom is more mythology. Actually, he continues to rely on Nikon as a primary source from his exhaustive camera guides etc, which continue to sell widely.
Besides his regular commentary on the company, you might notice if you'd bothered to look at his synopses of the F and Z system there's current reviews.
nicolachel wrote:
Thom wrote many interesting pieces on Nikon 15 years ago and as a long term user of Nikon, I've been an avid reader of his back then.
But in order to "report" on a much wider field (covering all mirror-less cameras and SLRs on multiple different sites), he seems too busy to pay much attention to Nikon nowadays.
If you didn't notice, he wrote the piece you linked on 4/30/2021, and seems to blame Nikon for "releasing annual report months later than usual" and "failed to notify him".
Well, the truth is, that annual report was released in May of 2020 (yes, almost a year ago) and due notices were sent to share holders and interested parties.
As you can easily guess from the above, Nikon's new report for CY 2020 (FY is from 2020/3 - 2021/3) will be released this May, in fact, it will be out in less than 10 days from now. That is when Nikon itself will inform all of its holders and other interesting parties that the cash flow for this past FY was a big negative number (a few hundred million, in USD).
Of course, Nikon has other assets and isn't in immediate danger of going out of business. But I wouldn't call such a big negative cash flow in a year without huge capex "no shortage of cash, apparently". It seems that Nikon themselves are in agreement with my view and proved it via their recent actions, you simply don't randomly close factories, retreat from markets, and layoff Japanese workers when you "have no shortage of cash". Not to mention all sorts of other obvious corner cuttings around the globe.
Now back to Thom, if he is so busy that he only bothers to talk about what Nikon released last year a few days before Nikon is set to release another report for this year, and tries to blame Nikon for causing the delay, I wonder how much attention he paid to the actual content of the report, or how much attention we should be paying to what he has to say
p.5 #3 · Will Nikon build anymore DSLR's, or are they done with DSLR's?
I want D500 and D850 upgrades and have posted in the past on what I'd like to see in such upgrades. I voted "Nikon will not build any more DSLR's." Better to expect
disappointment and be pleasantly surprised; than to become excited by future
upgrades, only to be devastated when upgrades never materialize.
Plus, my wishes, desires, and predictions never come true. So I boldly proclaim, "NO FUTURE DSLR UPGRADES" will come from Nikon. I hope I'm right/wrong.
One important piece of information not discussed so far in this thread is that by the
middle of 2019 DSLRs only had a four to five year "window" of usable, marketable and profitable sales left. This window was being closed by rising MILC sales, marketing, technology, interest, media/YT, etc.
Then COVID happened. COVID has already destroyed 18 months of that window. Delays in engineering and manufacturing due to economic lock-downs. Delays in logistics and supply chains which are still continuing today. Severe economic downturns for camera makers and consumers. Lack of travel with many restrictions still in place. No live/sporting events. Etc, Etc, Etc...
And perhaps another 18 months will elapse before true "return-to-normal" conditions
can exist in the world. That's a good three years right there.
Unfortunately the DSLR ship has sailed (or sunk) and Nikon doesn't have the business or marketing sense or financial resources to pull off successful MILC and DSLR camera divisions.
