Exactly what I've been thinking this entire thread. The market for quality optics is getting smaller, more specialized, and further from the consumer. The scientific, arts, and entertainment industries will likely be able to support no more than two or three top-tier manufacturers, and the consumer market is so far away from that that expertise in top-tier equipment will have no bearing on consumer products, and vice-versa.
Nikon sees this happening and choose which side of the divide to service. It's probably the safer bet, too, as some of the top-tier manufacturers are going to have to either coalesce or dissolve in the next decade or two regardless of strategy. At least in the consumer market strategy, such as partnering with a cellphone manufacturer, could open new opportunities.
Kodak pioneered digital photography (they literally invented the first digital still camera). All through the 80s and 90s they had the best digital camera sensors on the market and where first to release a commercially available DSLR. In the mid 90s they owned the pro DSLR space.
But they didn't want to cannibalize their film market, and after much infighting between senior managers they ended up not investing in the digital lead they had. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Kodak made scientific and technical optics and imaging equipment too, for years. Not to mention film for just about everything. They've made X-ray machines and other medical imaging devices. They had huge chemical plants and research facilities that didn't just make photographic chemicals. They even made hand grenades during WWII.
I should have also mentioned that they are very fiscally conservative. They barely carry any debt. A lot of their cost-cutting is proactive, as opposed to reactive.
That's a philosophy that I have followed, myself, and I find it is quite effective.
Is there really that many watchmakers on their deathbeds? Every couple of months I'll spend several hours wasting time looking for watch styles I like and I'm amazed at how many traditional watchmakers are still out there, some with 0 smartwatch offerings.
The ones who used to make clockwork watches just before digital watches appeared in the 1970s. They failed to invest in time and lost a lot of market share. To be fair, unlike Kodak and cameras, they weren't completely wiped out, and the high-end precision Swiss watch is still a thing.
Incidentally, recent sales have apparently been massively affected by COVID, as many of them are sold in bricks-and-mortar boutiques that customers are no longer visiting.
[Edit] - this is the queue of companies who failed to consider a rival disruptive technology.
> Incidentally, recent sales have apparently been massively affected by COVID, as many of them are sold in bricks-and-mortar boutiques that customers are no longer visiting.
I'd argue not having to go into an office and "dress up" has impacted the watch market as well. If I'm at home all day, I don't really need a clock on my wrist.
Kodak stubbornly refused to embrace the digital transformation, they kept making film cameras and film for them well after everybody else had a digital camera lineup for years.
No amount of valuable patents and top-notch engineers can help a failed strategic bet like this.
Kodak would like to have a word.