Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/02/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]John, Let's see, the Contax D1 has been pretty much a flop on the market at the same time that their film camera's have been more or less abandoned with the confusion on which mount is still being promoted. Minolta has just joined Konica for their copier business. The Minolta digital 7 series is languishing behind the offerings from Nikon(4700, 5000, 5700), Canon(G2, G3), Fuji(602), Olympus(the whole E series). Their highly promoted X is two months late to market, missed the whole Christmas cycle. Their film cameras are just like anyone else's, selling very slowly. Pentax has a lower cost structure but has some fairly slow selling digital P&S. Likewise their film cameras are selling fairly slowly. Nikon was late to market with their D100, took a long time to get production to the point that you could actually buy one. Their 5000 is looking long in the tooth as well as the 4700. Like everyone else, their film cameras are selling real slowly. Oh, and there is confusion as to their commitment to film with the new lenses that don't cover 35mm. Olympus has left the SLR business but is in the top three or four selling their generally excellent line of digital P&S. Their E line is in some trouble due to the D60 and D100 offering interchangeable lenses in a similar price point. Kodak's camera business is hemorrhaging money. Their 14 MP camera may be shipping now, or it may not. Canon has the best selling SLR, The Rebel Ti, the second best selling SLR, the Rebel 2000, and the third best selling SLR, the Rebel G. Their film P&S are doing fine. The G3 is selling very briskly, their ELPH 230 and 330 are selling as fast as they can build them. They had two factories building D60's as fast as they could, discontinued the D60, and will replace it with two cameras that will ship in March: this will effectively bracket the Nikon D100, whatever Pentax builds, and perhaps will compete with whatever Olympus comes out with. What does this mean? Maybe Canon is making money in digital. Their photography division is profitable. Olympus is profitable. Fuji with their own foundry is probably making money on their digital business. Everyone else is taking really big hits trying to play, hoping that they can survive long enough. The morale. It is very possible that a small specialty company can wait out the early wars and introduce their product as a niche product with most of the R&D paid for by someone else. The trick is that the Japanese look at the cost of producing the next box more than what the amortized cost of all the R&D. Who knows, we will have to wait and see. Don dorysrus@mindspring.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html