Olympus has called it quits, announcing that it is leaving the camera industry after 84 years in the business.
The Japanese imaging company made the announcement last Wednesday, citing drop in sales, profit, and interest. They are selling their consumer camera business, which accounts for just a small portion of their holdings, to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), the same company who bought VAIO from Sony back in 2014.
The digital camera industry has been devastated by the rise of smartphones. The fact that in 2017, the most used camera on Flickr was the iPhone says enough.
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JIP and Olympus is expected to complete the deal on September. The new owners are said to continue the development of existing Olympus camera tech for new products.
Olympus launched their first digital camera in 1996, debuting the Micro Four Thirds interchangeable lens system. Nowadays, most of its income come from using their optical technologies for medical and scientific equipment such as microscopes, endoscopes, etc.
