Pentax Still Comes Last in 2006 DSLR Global Shipment Share

Here comes the latest Reuters news for the numbers of shipments for Digicams and DSLRs in 2006, with figures of 2005 for comparison, too.

The key figures for DSLR shipments in 2006 are quoted as below:-
Canon 46.7%
Nikon 33%
Sony 6.2%
Olympus 5.9%
Pentax 5.4%

More unfortunately, for the DC shipments, Pentax's name cannot be seen in the list of major players.

Again, as in 2005, Pentax still comes last in 2006. It is of no surprise at all as for the first half year of 2006, I bet there was virtually no market share at all for Pentax DSLRs, with their "persistent" *ist Dx models. In fact, Pentax DSLR's sales could only see the light with the K100D, which was launched suddenly in July 06. But again, the K100D has been fighting for so long until the K10D arrived in late November, just because the K10 was delayed in shipment, as most "new" Pentax DSLRs did.

So, from another point of view, Pentax has done so well with their K100D and K10D, already, which was indeed quite a miracle for keeping up the sales figures with just half a year time, and mostly with the K100D, for most of the time. Otherwise, I'm sure that probably we cannot see Pentax as listed in the Reuters report anymore, as their share would have been more than neglectible so that their name would not appear. Here is some evidence showing that the K10D and K100D were once selling well in the Japan home market during their honeymoon periods, which reinforces my above suggestion.

But again, with the aging and outdating of the K100D and K10D, which are having much room for improvement indeed, plus, the limited supply of the Pentax lenses, plus, the down trend in image quality and performance of their glass IMHO, I'm afraid the same will happen again in 2007, unless they do launch and market new DSLRs to replace the two existing K models shortly. There is still hope, though. But at this moment, it is still very silent and there has not been any news from Pentax at all - but, no news is bad news this time.

Nevertheless, there are yet some signs for new Pentax DSLR replacement models *might* come, as recently there has been an obvious price cut campaign by Pentax globally, as we can see. For example, B&H has reduced the price for K10D recently and there have been very large cuts in the prices of the K10D and K100D in Hong Kong, for nearly 20% and more than 10%, respectively. So, if you are (still) really interested in a Pentax DSLR body, I think it would be wise to wait for a moment to see what will happen in the near future. I bet if Pentax is once again not acting fast, 2007 will be the turning point for them to be quitted from the game!