Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/06/13

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Subject: [Leica] M9, New Blood?
From: red735i at earthlink.net (Frank Filippone)
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:55:41 -0700

You, then, are not a target market.  ( not said dismissively, but with
marketing-thought)

But there ARE RF users out there....

On any given day, there are approx. 10,000 different Leica things for sale
on EBay.  Yes, some are filters, lens caps, etc.  but the sheer number of
M3's and M6's that are sold is astounding, in an era of digi-slrs.

Long ago I stated that Leica makes money on optics, not mechanical things (
bodies).  That is their bread and butter, and what makes them money.  ( see
$275+++ plastic or metal  lens hoods for the new optics ).  Find a way to
promote the sales of (new) optics, and they get much more profitable.

The S2 is a current success candidate for producing a profit.   ( Although I
think it will go the way of the Edsel).  ALL the optics must be bought, new.
Brilliant strategy.

The M8 and subsequent M9 represent the past success.  They promoted the sale
of new ( mostly ASPH but more so, floating elements) optics.  They need to
look forward to the future....   A $10K M10 is just not going to expand
their optical market, if it is sold to their existing user base, film or
digital.    A $3-4K M-CL would open up new users, as well as old users, and
new lens purchases would follow.

If you want to hold down development costs, bring back the M8 for a low
priced intro to Digi-M (optical) sales.  Pair it with the Summarit lenses,
and stand back for the sales flow....  A $7K, 3 lens intro solution.  New
optics all over the place.

You need new blood.

And I will forego the requisite R link.

Frank Filippone
Red735i at earthlink.net


-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+red735i=earthlink.net at leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+red735i=earthlink.net at leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
wildlightphoto at earthlink.net
Sent: Monday, June 13, 2011 8:10 AM
To: lug at leica-users.org
Subject: Re: [Leica] Another R option (now M9)

Frank Filippone wrote:

>>>
If you double the volume, ( using the perverse and inverse of Moore's Law)
the manufacturing cost should halve.
<<<

Not enough people grok RF to double the volume.  I understand RF, I
appreciate its unique capabilities, there's no way I'd buy one because it
doesn't work for my subjects. 

Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com

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