Samsung Australia is believed to have has pulled out of the digital camera market due to poor sales and a lack of acceptance of a Samsung branded digital camera.
While the Company is still selling cameras via the Companies online site, retailers have said that they struggled to sell Samsung the cameras despite several models being “Of extremly high quality” and featuring “cutting edge digital camera” technology.
A leading retailer who was selling Samsung digital cameras said “They are out of the market we are not stocking any new products, all we are doing is selling out old stock”.
Craig Gillespie who headed up Samsung’s digital camera business in Australia quit the Company in April 2016 to take on a new role at Boomworks.
Back in September 2014 Samsung Australia was forced to quit the PC market due to poor sales.
The exit of both the digital camera and PC market is believed to have led to several people being retrenched.
Back in January Samsung exited the UK camera market due to poor sales, commenting on the decision, a spokesperson for Samsung said “We quickly adapt to market needs and demands. In the UK, we have seen a gradual and sustained decline in demand for standalone digital cameras and camcorders and related accessories”
They added “For this reason, we have taken the decision to phase out the sales and marketing of these products. This is a local decision, based on local market conditions.”
The Company has also exited the German digital camera market.
Samsung Australia has not yet commented.
ChannelNews understands that Samsung is struggling globally with their digital camera division with speculation mounting that the Company will pull out of all digital camera markets globally due to the high cost of development, research and development as well as the high cost of manufacturing a physical digital camera.
Unlike Panasonic who chose to introduce the Lumix brand name for their cameras, with a lot of success, Samsung stuck to using the Samsung brand name a move that analysts claim was “the wrong move”.
ChannelNews also noticed that Samsung has suddenly cancelled their stand at the upcoming 2016 Photokina show.
Photokina is the largest photo show in the world and it takes place every two years in Germany.
