Konica Minolta exits camera market

Exit stage left

30 March 2006 15:13 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Konica Minolta, as we previously reported in January will withdraw from the photographic market tomorrow.

The company has cited its inability to keep up with the demands and changing speed of digital photography for the move.

The company has said that from tomorrow customers with any servicing requests of Konica, Minolta and Konica Minolta branded products either within or outside of warranty, including Digital Still Cameras, DSLR cameras, Analogue SLR cameras, Analogue LS, Flashguns, lenses and accessories, Film Scanners is to be handled by the sole appointed servicing agent need to contact JP Service Solutions in Newcastle under Lyme.

Konica Minolta, which was created last year from the merger of Konica and Minolta announced that it was withdrawing from the digital camera market by tomorrow and the photo business by 31 March 2007 to concentrate on other areas of its business.

In a statement issued in January the company said, “In today's era of digital cameras, where image sensor technologies such as CCD is indispensable, it became difficult to timely provide competitive products even with our top optical, mechanical and electronics technologies”.