Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/07/02
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>The points I was trying to make were more related to the way Leica does not
>respond to real world market requirements and the risks that this race for
>the smaller niches may carry for the future of that company.
>Friendly regards,
>Alan,
>Brussels-Belgium
No doubt they are at risk in a general sense, but they might be better off
than we think. The camera group needs to turn a profit, but they are part
of a larger corporation and so are more secure than they would be if they
were indpendent. They make microscopes and surveying equipment as well as
things that I'm sure I'm not aware of. We bought a Leica microscope a
couple of years ago here, and they are well-known and highly competitive in
that market. The parent company seems committed to the camera group (the
aquisition of Minox being an example).
I suspect that if the camera group started operating in the red then the
coroporation would pump some R+D into them and re-assess their operations.
Maybe this has already happened: witness the new M lenses and Minilux Zoom.
If need be it will happen again.
The Leica camera group could go under, but I suspect that it would be a
long slow decline since the corporate image is tied to the camera's success.
As far as their niche: they have good products in all niches except for the
AF SLR market. I think that they could avoid that market and still do well;
what they need, as I ranted about earlier, is investment in marketing. They
need to sell the merits of their cameras.
- -Charlie
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Charles E. Dunlap
Earth Sciences Department
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Tel.: (408) 459-5228 Fax.: (408) 459-3074
mailto:cdunlap@es.ucsc.edu
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