Leica Just Recorded the Highest Revenue in Its Entire 100-Year History
- Reference: 0175554263
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/24/11/27/1728244/leica-just-recorded-the-highest-revenue-in-its-entire-100-year-history
- Source link:
> Leica Camera announced that its 2023/2024 fiscal year saw it achieve [1]the highest revenue in the entire history of the company . It saw 14% growth to 554 million euros ($586.3 million) over last year's already spectacular 485 million euros.
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> Last winter, Leica announced that it had set a sales record for the 2022/23 financial year and it has shattered that achievement now in 2024. The company says it was able to build on its successful business and sustain the growth of its earnings. The biggest driver of the company's success remains unchanged: cameras. While Leica has bolstered its business with its Mobile Imaging segment (smartphone technology and partnerships), the core of its business remains stand-alone cameras and the support of photography.
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> Specifically, Leica says that the most potent revenue driver this year was the Leica Q3. However, it did not elaborate on sales numbers for this camera. 2024 is the best fiscal year so far in the almost 100-year history of the company and Leica says that this result confirms its "strategic alignment" of the Leica Camera Group as it continues to foster its core business as well as expansions into other markets.
[1] https://petapixel.com/2024/11/20/leica-just-recorded-the-highest-revenue-in-its-entire-100-year-history/
Seriously? (Score:2)
You are glorifying capitalism, OP? That is very bad taste here.
Let me check my cheat sheet. (Score:2)
So, they need to raise prices and complain about the supply chain, right? RIGHT?
Leica Q3 (Score:2)
I just don't see the purpose of this thing. It's got a prime lens permanently attached to a full frame mirrorless back. There are plenty that make full frame mirrorless backs, and you can stick whatever prime you want on them. But here your paying over $6k for a camera that can use exactly one prime lens? So you need to buy a whole other back for other lenses? Seems like a toy for the rich more than a real photography tool.
We see a lot of posts like this.... (Score:2)
Sometimes, you do not pay for the service or parts. You pay for the possibility of buying another product down the line.
Sometimes an entire industry will collectively pay, to make sure their supplier will exist in a decade. And with the market slowly shrinking due changes in technology... you either got bankruptcies, selling IP, or success stories like Leica.
As an American (Score:2)
I'd never even heard of Leica until the 2004 comedy flick EuroTrip. I think that was actually part of the joke, because if you asked the average American to name camera brands you'd get answers such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, and Polaroid. Maybe Kodak too, if they're old enough to remember them.
And if you ask someone who happens to be born after the movie EuroTrip was released, they'll probably just shrug and say they have a camera on their phone.
Re: (Score:2)
Leica invented the 35 mm still camera in 1927, a format which got named 135 by Kodak in 1934.
If you never heard of Leica before, then because Kodak took that segment in the U.S.. But for everyone outside the U.S., a Leica was the camera for the photo reporter because of its small form factor, which made it light to carry around.
Leica is relevant? (Score:2)
I assume that these comparisons have not been adjusted for inflation.
Professionals (Score:3)
There are still a lot of professional photographers out there, and they don't use phones.
Everyone is switching over to mirrorless, which Leica has been perfecting for decades. So, yes, they are very relavent. The market is niche, and always has been, but the difference now is that Nikon, Canon and Minolta can't leverage their mastery of SLR to compete any more.
Re: (Score:1)
That's utterly laughable. I've almost never read of real, modern-day professional photographers using Leica. Leica is doing well because the obscenely rich are doing better than ever, and they buy Leica cameras as baubles. BTW you are also conflating rangefinder with mirrorless. Some actual professionals do use the Sony Alpha series, which is really what people mean by mirrorless.
Re: (Score:2)
> I've almost never read of real, modern-day professional photographers using Leica.
[1]Henri Cartier-Bresson [wikipedia.org] was a world-renowned photographer who used exclusively Leica, with only a couple of lenses (mostly the standard 50 mm).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson
Re: (Score:2)
BS lots of pros use Leicas.
Re: (Score:2)
Have you ever had a real camera in your hand? 90% of what you said is bullshit.
Re: (Score:2)
The fact that you do not know that Minolta has been dead for half n eternity makes your comment a bit problematic. Nikon, Canon, Fuji and Sony (bought Minolta) all have mirrorless cameras. Panasonic is the hot upcoming kid on the block and Olympus is still around. Nikon recently announced that they are leaving the SLR market and only do mirrorless.
not been adjusted for inflation. (Score:2)
14% is way better than inflation for the last year.