Sony's results for the 2018 fiscal year recently came out, and among a lot of insightful data on the inner workings of their imaging business is one particularly important detail: the company has now overtaken Nikon for the number two spot worldwide.
The news came in the 2018 fiscal year report, which shows that Sony held 19% of the 1,400 billion yen interchangeable lens camera market in the 2017 fiscal year by revenue (unsurprisingly, they were first in mirrorless), which was good enough for third place globally. In the 2018 fiscal year, that share increased to 23% of a 1,300 billion yen ILC market, vaulting the company ahead of Nikon for second overall by revenue globally. They also maintained their overall lead in mirrorless cameras. As you might have noticed, the overall market for interchangeable lens camera shrunk by about 7%, a figure that while sad, is not particularly surprising. Similarly, the global video camera market shrunk from 390 billion yen to 300 billion yen, while Sony maintained their 29% share of revenue from the previous fiscal year. Despite the shrinking size of the global market, it's good to see Sony making additional progress, as it'll surely keep the pressure on other manufacturers to keep innovating.
.... And there's another report that nikon z sales are ticking up while Sony's a line has stated to slow. Who to believe
Who to believe you ask? Definitely not the anonymous commenter with zero accolades to backup his claim. :P