Unannouced, Canon Ships First DVD Camcorders by Robin Liss Published on Oct 5, 2005 8:00 PM

Canon's first DVD camcorders which were announced in August in every country except the United States have begun shipping to the national consumer electronics retailer Best Buy. Although the DC10 (Review, Specs, $409.99) and DC20 (Specs, ) have not been announced by Canon USA and they do not appear on the Canon website, raising questions about why Canon is shipping the models but not announcing them.

“The product is in the stores, and we can acknowledge that. We are making no comments to the media on the product itself at time. Due to business reasons we aren’t at liberty to discuss why we don’t have a press release for this product,” a Canon Spokesperson stated.

When asked why Canon was not releasing information to the press or to the public about the new camcorders, Canon refused to comment. It is very unusual for a manufacturer to not want the press or their buying public to hear about a new product. Canon's refusal raises even more questions about the camcorders and their surrounding marketing strategy.

The new DVD camcorders are available for purchase on the Best Buy website (BestBuy DC10 Product Page, BestBuy DC20 Product Page) but the website lists a 1-2 week delay for delivery. However, the camcorders were available at the Cambridge Massachusetts Best Buy, where CamcorderInfo.com purchased a DC10 and a DC20 earlier today. CamcorderInfo.com will be running reviews of both DVD camcorders in the next few days. The camcorders have not appeared on the website of Circuit City, but retailers OneCall and J&R list the DC10and DC20 as in stock and ready to ship.

The DC10 and the DC20 are Canon's first-ever DVD camcorders, following the lead of Panasonic, Hitachi and Sony. The DVD camcorder market has grown significantly the past year, with Sony taking a very dominant position. JVC and Samsung are now the only manufacturers without DVD camcorders. Canon has been a latecomer to the DVD market. Panasonic and Hitachi have had DVD camcorders on the market for five years while Sony began production three years ago.

When the camcorders were first announced in every country except the US there was a large amount of speculation surrounding why reason Canon had not announced them in the US. It especially odd for a company like Canon, which concentrates so much effort and money on marketing, to not announce a major product development.

A check of the official Canon website makes the situation seem even more suspicious. There is no information on the official website about the DVD camcorders. Canon is typically very fast with posting information about their newest products to their company website. One camcorder executive from a Canon competitor, who asked to not be named, stated his beliefs. The reason Canon has not announced the products officially, in his opinion, was because Canon cannot possibly compete with Sony, either on price or quality in the DVD market. Sony's entry level DVD camcorder costs under $500. Breaking away any market share from a dominant Sony will be difficult for any DVD newcomer.

Although no official specifications are available, according to the Best Buy website the new DVD camcorders feature the same specifications as the versions that were announced in Japan. The DC10 features a 1.33 Megapixel CCD while the DC20 features a 2.2 Megapixel CCD.

CamcorderInfo.com will be posting a review of one of the DVD camcorders in the next few details with full information about the models.