Axis / Canon Conflict

Axis is coming out with a dome that can use limited pan & tilt functionality for installation assistance just like the Canon model that has this. I am sure we are going to see the two lines merge, albeit slowly, probably with the Axis name eventually going away.

A few reasons why Canon kept Axis and Milestones as separate entities:

1. By keeping Axis and Milestones separate, it is easy for Canon to spin them off, once Canon has fully absorbed their competitive edges in their technologies and business models;

2. Canon wants to continue to leverage the brand equity of Axis and Milestones, at least in the short term;

3. The integration between Canon and Axis was particularly difficult. I could image that at high level due to cultural difference; how many you Anglo-American-establishment whites would welcome a Japanese supervisor?

4. Expectation of Yen depreciation against US dollar. At the time Canon acquired Axis, Japanese Yen has been on a depreciation ride against the US dollars. At that time, the general market expectation was that Yen will depreciate further against the US dollars. Thus, by buying a US company at that time and selling it later at the same price, Canon will stand to make a gain;

Maybe in Japanese tradition someone or some people were expected to resign for the benefit of the company, but ended up not happening and those people are still hanging around and keeping the other brand alive.

I chose 'other' because it really doesn't matter which brand they pick. They just need to pick one. And then fuse their strength at the top end of the market and attack that full force. Maybe grab a smaller company that lets them attack the low cost SMB range and make a singular global competitor that can seriously compete with a state-run behemoth like Hikvision.

Get serious, pick a brand and get busy building a global infrastructure and keiretsu around it. What the hell is so complicated about a premise like that a few years in to a multi-billion dollar deal?

Canon may drop their brand in this market and just promote Axis instead. because Canon is more a consumer brand, in digital camera and camcorders, rather than industry brand. Canon's huge investments in advertisement also has nothing to do with Axis in surveillance market.

It's a completely failure to use Canon brand for such industry, and it can be a success if this is just a financial investment in Axis and keep Axis to be independent, and they may grow better with Canon's financial support, sales channel support, and also lens and camera integration experience.

It looks like Canon big boss has not carefully thought before they made this acquisition.

Keep both brands and rely on their strength in different markets.

The physical product portofolio should be merged and use same familiy of components to increase volume and reduce production cost. This would also reduce their development cost significantly.

Usually in bid situations, or being evaluated for specs, especially in government, aren't there rules about disclosing ownership by an entity owning multiple entities involved in the process? Could there be a risk in a bid situation where Axis, Milestone and maybe even Canon are being evaluated for bid specs or even being offered in competing bids, where the purchaser may not be aware of the common ownership between them initially but when they find out may cause a problem for the seller/integrator......?

Canon should combine all of their technologies and child companies in the security industry to form an end to end software/hardware solution called Milecanaxis or Canaxistone

Plenty of companies have competing lines, such as Chevrolet/Buick/Cadillac, VW/Audi/Porsche, and Toyota/Lexus.

Keep Axis' high quality, price point, and presence in the IT industry. Meanwhile, hit the mid- to low-end market with the Canon product.

In my opinion, the challenge for Canon integrating the two lines is Canon seeing themselves as a company that offers quality or best in class (cameras & lenses) even though that's not the case with security cameras. To relegate their Canon line to the "low cost offering" seems to run in opposition to the company culture. As difficult as it is to merge companies, if you picked the best people from Axis, Milestone & Canon, they might be able to develop a winning strategy and product offering.

Canon should not drop anything, that would be stupid. Instead, Canon should use it's optical / lenses experience to create a unique lucrative niche of powerful hi-zoom cameras, macro lenses cameras [what ever else cameras.. all what requires lenses beyond standards of what Axis has now] Canon then should use time-proven Axis IP-core for this unique line of cameras. This will bring a new line of customers willing to record something which was unreachable to Axis camera line.

If there are any technical, quality or feature advantages in the Canon range: add them to Axis then drop Canon - continuing as they are will only serve to dilute both brands and cause market confusion.

The possible ensuing conflict is greater than the sum of the parts. By entering the access control market space, AXIS has jumped into a game that they 1)lack any knowledge of; 2) lack any expertise in; 3) will position them in direct conflict with much of their existing market. In their core space, AXIS is known for high quality and high costs. In entering the access control space, AXIS is known for low quality and low price. They most likely will lean on their large and loyal retail customer to accept their product as a viable alternative only to be sorely disappointed upon deployment due to the lack of maturity of their opening product. Canon is not typically known to step into new product sectors lacking any expertise. Rather than bear the extra costs and RISKS, it seems Canon would do well to kill the internal fledgling effort with the AXIS approach to access control and maybe acquire a top rated access control provider.

It appears that a failure to address that future conflict at this stage could limit future growth prospects for AXIS. Once a customer feels the burn, the stench in the air will be AXIS's formerly good name.

Another example of Canon's legacy video surveillance business actively marketing against Axis is in a trade mag ad this month:

So maybe the corporate strategy is to keep all the teams sharp thru mutual competition and non-linear disruption.

Red teaming taken to a whole new level.

Milestone competes against Axis for recorders and Canon competes against them for cameras.

More oars in the water might be ok if the ocean is big enough...