[Leica] Will L survive

[red735i at earthlink.net (Frank Travel)]

You have to ask..... Why is no one else doing it?  Because it is corporate 
suicide?

It is simple economics... Too high prices =  No ( or insufficient)  
customers = No company.

Did the Summarits succeed?  Did they sell a lot?  

There are market segments that are not price sensitive, but only to a point: 
Optics for the movie industry are one that I can think of, and specialized 
scientific optics are another.  Neither is a big market in unit volume nor 
total profit  dollars.  Certainly insufficient to support a larger company 
that is leaking dollars.  Amateur Photography, even if it is mostly 
supported by financially well heeled people, is not one of the markets that 
can support a "price-be-damned" marketing strategy.


Frank

The comments on the cost of the new lens offering are of course a bit 
premature when they have not been announced, but I have no doubt they will 
be way out of my comfort zone, BUT this is what Leica do, and have done 
well. Design top lenes regardless of the cost. They may not survive, but it 
is the one thing they do better than anyone --- because NO ONE else really 
does it. Sometimes being in a niche works. Mind you if the share market does 
not turn around soon I may be selling ;-)

Cheers

Alastair