There is an interesting article at BusinessWeek Online that explores the business side of Sony’s HDR-HC3 digital camcorder. One interesting factoid is that in Japan the HC3 has been the best seller amongst digital camcorders for seven weeks straight. In fact, last week, one out of every six digital camcorders sold in Japan was an HC3.
The article goes on to talk about Sony’s push to make their way into the Digital Home. That is, the HDR-HC3 is only the first step. People will want to watch their fantastic footage, so they will buy an HDTV, or a projector, and on and on until Sony dominates the gadget inundated home.
It also appears that a lot of consumer research went into designing the HC3. Consumer surveys indicated that most people wanted as few buttons as possible, as small a camcorder as possible, and ease of use. Since Sony was obviously gearing consumer with this camcorder’s release, they went with what the people wanted and it looks like, at least in Japan, they got it right.
Take a look at the article if you’re into marketing and the like, because it’s pretty interesting to see the way Sony is headed with this.
