Nikon Corp. is looking at ways to tap smartphone growth as a slump in compact camera sales threatens to prevent earnings from meeting forecasts.

Point-and-shoot camera sales across the industry dropped about a quarter in April and May from a year earlier, President Makoto Kimura said Thursday at Nikon's Tokyo headquarters, citing third-party research.

Shipments of smartphones meanwhile jumped 46 percent last year to 722 million units, according to international researcher IDC Corp.