Fujifilm recently published their report for the third quarter of the 2020 fiscal year (October to December 2019), and it appears as if the camera market is still very much in decline. Overall, it appears as if Fujifilm's mirrorless products are struggling in an increasingly competitive market and their overall revenue and operating incomings have decreased.
Interestingly, Fujifilm's instax products are also slowing down. Ever since Fujifilm relaunched the instax line with the instax mini 8, their line of instant cameras have enjoyed a renaissance at the hands of young users. Sold in trendy shops such as Urban Outfitters, instax cameras once seemed like an unstoppable analog behemoth.
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However, it seems that Fujifilm's instax products are struggling to continue to ride this wave of popularity, as sales are sluggish compared with previous years. This could be due to a variety of reasons, but we wonder whether the simple brilliance of the instax cameras are their very downfall. If you enjoy the analog nature of the instax mini, there's really very little reason to change model outside of wanting a change of color.
However, as reported by Fuji Rumors, Fujifilm's report states, "We are aiming to expand sales mainly with attractive new products such as instax mini LiPlay and instax mini Link, a printer for smartphones."
The instax mini LiPlay is a digital upgrade to the classic instax mini cameras, including a digital screen and the ability to convert sounds into QR codes and replay them at a later date. We'll be interested to see whether this step towards digital will be able to capture consumers' imagination in the same way as the original instax cameras.
However, it's certainly not all doom and gloom for Fujifilm's imaging division. The Fujifilm GFX100 and Fujifilm X-Pro3 are both enjoying 'solid sales' according to the report, which also added that: "We are aiming to expand sales of new product such as Fujifilm X-T200, [which is] to be launched this month."
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