Olympus exits the camera business – here's what it means for OM-D and Zuiko fans

Update 24/6/20: we've heard back from Olympus and have included its comments further down this page.
Big news for camera fans just landed today – Olympus has announced that it's exiting the camera business by selling its imaging division to a Japanese investment fund.
The deal is currently at the memorandum of understanding (MOU) stage, but a final agreement is expected to be reached by September 30 and be completed by the end of the year.
The classic camera brand, which has been making cameras and lenses since 1936, was rumored to be shuttering its imaging division back in November 2019. Its CEO Yasuo Takeuchi refuted those rumors at the time, before backtracking on the possibility that it might be for sale.
The news raises two big questions: why is Olympus getting out of the camera business, and what does this mean for Olympus camera owners? The first of these has been answered pretty emphatically in the memorandum for the deal, with Olympus pointing towards the rise of smartphones as the main reason.
The company says "Olympus has implemented measures to cope with the extremely severe digital camera market, due to, amongst others, rapid market shrink caused by the evolution of smartphones".
As a result, Olympus has recently been more focused on the higher margin, pro-friendly cameras and lenses in its Micro Four Thirds lineup, like the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III.
But despite these efforts, Olympus says its imaging business "recorded operating losses for three consecutive fiscal years up to the term ended in March 2020". This harsh market reality, combined with the fact that imaging only accounts for 10% of the company's business, explains why it's now decided to walk away.
Olympus PEN E-PL10

The future of Olympus

But does what this all mean for future Olympus cameras and those who already own an Olympus model?
We reached out to Olympus for comment and it told us "we are keen to stress to our customers that it is very much business as usual."
It added: "We are grateful to all our customers for their loyalty and support for our products, and their passion for photography. During the ongoing discussions, Olympus Imaging will operate with business as usual: we will continue to work on innovative initiatives for our customers and we will launch new products as planned."
Exactly which new products these will be remains uncertain, but the sale's memorandum states that the investment fund will "continue to provide supports to the imaging solution products that have been distributed by Olympus". Which suggests that existing agreements like warranties will be transferred to the new company.
It's not yet clear what the JIP investment fund intends to do with Olympus' imaging arm, but it's not necessarily the end of the road for its much-loved OM-D cameras or Zuiko lenses.
Olympus

Lessons from the past

The fund will apparently "utilize the innovative technology and unique product development capabilities which have been developed within Olympus, and will realize continuous growth of the business by bringing better products and services to the users and customers". 
In other words, it will take ownership of Olympus' existing models and look to develop new ones, possibly in line with some of the roadmap the company had outlined up to 2023.
To get a glimpse of Olympus' fortunes, we can look at what happened when the Japanese Industrial Partners (JIP) bought Sony's Vaio business when the company decided to get out of the PC market in 2014.
This resulted in the creation of a Vaio Corporation, which started off fairly slowly in the US and Asian markets before making a bigger comeback in Europe with a new Vaio range. 
While it was nice to see the Vaio brand's return, its business laptops haven't been particularly well received. That said, a similar situation with Nokia, which licensed its name to Finnish company HMD Global, has resulted in a strong partnership that now produces a range of impressive, budget smartphones, so a sale like this isn't necessarily the end of the road for a much-loved brand.
For now, the Micro Four Thirds banner will be continue to be carried by Panasonic, which only today announced the new Panasonic G100. And for Olympus? We'll update this page as soon as we have any more official information on today's big news for camera fans.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linktree’s free workaround lets you add multiple links to your Instagram bio

Image
Instagram only gives you one opportunity to link to outside resources inside its photo sharing platform. This might not be a problem for a majority of the users, but for those wanting a little more customization and even more options, it leaves much to be desired. Enter  Linktree , a free tool for Instagram designed to improve traffic to your outside link, be it a blog, portfolio, or store. How it works is fairly straightforward. After connecting Linktree to your Instagram profile, you’ll receive a single link to place in your Instagram bio. Once that link in place, you can customize what it’s linked to within your browser, be it a single website, or a collection of sites you’re looking to direct followers to Say you’re a photographer who’s using Instagram as a marketing tool for your wedding photography. Using Linktree, you can direct Instagram followers to your blog, your portfolio site, and even your other social media accounts. Until now, you would’ve been stuck choosing b
Read more

EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT THE PIXEL 4, THE MOST-LEAKED PHONE EVER

Image
Google’s  Pixel 3 might have been the  most-leaked phone in history . Long before its unveiling, we knew practically everything about it from unboxing videos, photo comparisons, even a full review of the device. Surely, for the Pixel 4, Google would clamp down on leaks to leave some surprises for its debut on  October 15th , right? Let’s just say, if that was the plan, it didn’t exactly work out. We’ve now seen the Pixel 4 XL from every angle and in three different colors. At least seven different sources have touched this phone, many of them confirming the same specs. We not only know which cameras it’ll have, but also what they may be capable of, including air gestures (go figure). That doesn’t even count information Google has already shared  on purpose. So if you want to know almost everything about the Pixel 4 nearly a month before it’s announced, buckle up. We’ve sifted through all of the rumors and information we can find to compile everything we know — and everything we
Read more

Our favorite iOS apps for the iPhone and iPad in 2018

Image
As 2018 comes to a close, it’s time to look at some our favorite apps of the year. While not all of these are brand new, many of them popped up onto our radar for the first time in 2018, and are definitely worth the attention. Others are some of our favorites that are still best-in-class despite having been around for some time now. We aim to do things differently at TNW, and as such you’re not going to find the recommendations you’re probably used to seeing: Gmail, Skype, Dropbox, and the like. Instead, we want to focus on the best-of-the-best that you may not have heard of, and others that are just special enough to warrant a mention. As always, we’d encourage you to share some of your favorites in the comments below, or on Facebook. Enlight Pixaloop (Free Pixaloop  is one of my favorite apps on the market. Unlike typical image editors that allow you to remove red eye or apply a filter, Pixaloop allows you to create stunning photo animations with a few clicks on your
Read more