In their Taiwan launch of the GF5, Panasonic's executives produced several statistics about mirrorless camera penetration and market share. To wit:
- Taiwan: 46% DSLR, 54% mirrorless
- Japan: 57% DSLR, 43% mirrorless
- Hong Kong: 56% DSLR, 44% mirrorless
They also claimed that their Taiwanese market share grew so that they now own the largest market share for interchangeable lens cameras in Taiwan:
- 2010: 6.4%
- 2011: 17%
- 2012: 22% first three months, 25% estimate current
The slide that showed growth (again in Taiwan) also showed that Sony and Canon were the two companies losing significant share (it also appears that Nikon lost some share, but Panasonic's graphics make it difficult to tell how much, if any. Panasonic's charts also showed Olympus as having virtually no market share in Taiwan (very low single digits).
So now we know why no Panasonic m4/3 gear shows up in the US when a product is launched: it's going to Taiwan! ;~)
As a side note, the 35-100mm f/2.8 to be launched later this summer was clearly on display with some additional specs now visible (close focusing at .85m, for example).
Source: ePrice
