Nikon is looking at ways to tap smartphone growth as a slump in compact camera sales may lead to weaker-than-forecast earnings. Point-and-shoot camera sales across the industry dropped about a quarter in April and May from a year earlier, President Makoto Kimura said in a July 4 interview at Nikon’s Tokyo headquarters, citing third-party research. Smartphone shipments jumped 46 percent last year to 722 million units, according to Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC Corp. “The number of people taking snapshots is exploding by use of smartphones that sold 750 million or so last year and are still growing,” Kimura said. “We’ve centralized our ideas around cameras but can change our approach to offer products to that bigger market.” The company’s first quarter earnings estimates were set “fairly low” and the results will probably be close or “a little short,” said Kimura.