Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/12/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Shooting for a 10% market share in a small market ( how many Digi-SLR are Digi-MF? as a % ???? ) is not a marketing success by overall Photo market standards. It might make the company profitable, and it might meet the company plans and goals, but in the grand scheme of things it is lost in the rounding errors of sales volumes or sales dollars. I am not against the S2 as a product... Do I think it is or will be a successful camera, even to Leica? No. Will it revolutionize the Digi-MF market? No. It is simply another player in a really small niche market, which in itself seems to be growing smaller day by day... Do I think Hasselblad is eating Leica's lunch, and will ultimately kill the S2? Yes. Add Mamiya and everyone else that is trying to get into this market..... Figuring out WHY the S2 is going to be a success is pretty much a stretch for me.... YMMV I am against the thought that it is a mainline product in a big market. The number of M9 users on this list is pretty high. Ditto the high end ( $5-8K) cameras from N or C. But only 1 or 2 S2 cameras. So a $7K camera is not unsalable here, but the lenses were pretty much free ( already owned and used in film or on the M8). That kind of thinking lowers the cost of entry a lot... and produces more success than asking the user to buy both the lenses and the body.. With only 2 S2 LUG cameras, you must ask why? Price as a cost of entry? Need for these big files? For Pros: Need by THEIR customers for files of this size? Is the price a problem with market success for the S2? I think so. But the number of Digi-Hasselblad cameras says that for some ( Pros? Well heeled Amateurs?) it is not. So we, here on this LUG list, are not financially well enough off as amateurs, or those on this list as Pros, do not have the right customers to allow then to buy this thing? Does Porsche have lower market success than GM? What are the measurement standards? Unit volume? Total WW sales in cars as measured in $$$$ ? Total sales of Trucks? Customer satisfaction? Number of beverage holders in the car? ( My Toyota Sienna has 12, beat that Porsche!) By Big Company (GM) standards, Porsche is a failure. Yes, I have always wanted a Porsche..... not the 924 that I did own, but a REAL Porsche. Market share is always measured in unit volume. Unless the $$$ measurement proves the users' plan better........ or unit volume numbers are not available.... In the case of the S2, the unit volume or the EURO success is just too tiny to count on a world wide basis, even as a Digi-MF at a predicted 10%.. The reality is still to be determined. They have sunk their R+D expense. They can not reverse that fact. Now they must produce a profit or at least support the camera for the next X years regardless of the Electronic realities of retired technology.... Even the Battery in the DMR seems to be a problem for them... too small a market..... Whatever happened to the S1? Great files, died a quick death. We'll see. Proposal.... Make the S2 Successful and make Frank eat his words by going out and actually buying one today.......It is the Season to do good deeds.... Frank Filippone Red735i at earthlink.net Sounds like bollocks to me. Does that mean Porsche has less market success than GM because it sells fewer cars? Even when it has been very profitable for years and GM has not? No, you won't get agreement on that from many people I wouldn't think! FD