Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/01/20

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Subject: [Leica] Konica Minolta to quit photo market
From: don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory)
Date: Fri Jan 20 05:30:26 2006
References: <4cfa589b0601190815h41672838i4316f0d205755dd8@mail.gmail.com> <9b678e0601191537t45d8f122l169ee41cb0ffd28b@mail.gmail.com> <43D0CD03.5040903@summaventures.com>

Peter,
It is exactly the loss of control that is killing Kodak.  Remember when they
brought out a new format of film every 10 years or so?  There was a huge
profit potential as they filled the pipeline with products from film to
special batteries to being the only game in town able to process the film.
As manufacturing prowess has moved west Kodak has lost the digital race as
well.

Kodak is run largely by a group of executives that grew up when Kodak did
control the market and they can not seem to break out of that mindset.  My
g*d they were all so proud of that bloated overpriced underperforming dung
called the EasyShare One.  Late to market and way underspecced for the
price.  Another billion down the rathole and another 10,000 employees laid
off.

What the digital revolution has done is literally opened up what photography
is.  For a very short while yet, what we use to take visual records is still
up in the air.  Any company with a bright idea and access to capital could
change photography.  An example would be the ipod.  Digital music was making
slow inroads until Apple came out with a wonderful interface for listening
to MP3 formatted musice: boom, the old way of buying and listening to music
died.

Don
don.dory@gmail.com


On 1/20/06, Peter Dzwig <pdzwig@summaventures.com> wrote:
>
> Don Dory wrote:
>
> > Companies that will be standing include Canon, Sony, Panasonic, and
> > NIkon(maybe).  There will be a huge confluence of photography with
> phones
> > and MP3 players for the masses.  If you can't be in those markets then
> you
> > will be out.
> >
> > Don
> > don.dory@gmail.com
>
> Unless you can do something about your costs and consciously seek to be a
> niche
> player. Which is Solms problem, they can do the second, but can't get
> their act
> round the first bit. Volume isn't everything, economics is.
>
> The trouble for all film camera makers is that control of their market is
> out of
> their hands to a large extent, being in the hands of the likes of Kodak
> and so
> on. That's why I welcome the arrival of Efke and so on and the desire to
> continue of Fuji and others.
>
> Peter Dzwig
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>

Replies: Reply from bruce at ralgo.nl (bruce) ([Leica] Konica Minolta to quit photo market)
Reply from sethrosner at nycap.rr.com (Seth Rosner) ([Leica] Konica Minolta to quit photo market - now Kodak staying in film)
In reply to: Message from abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge) ([Leica] Konica Minolta to quit photo market)
Message from don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory) ([Leica] Konica Minolta to quit photo market)
Message from pdzwig at summaventures.com (Peter Dzwig) ([Leica] Konica Minolta to quit photo market)