Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> Jeez, this is not a difficult concept. Selling off old parts from a > dwindling and unreplenishable inventory of parts compromises Leica's > ability > to support the older products. As for the new stuff, Leica probably > wants > to produce a limited stock of spare parts in order to keep costs down. Well, I'm glad you've rationalized it for yourself. The fact that it alienates a loyal bunch of customers (the people who actually own and use the cameras they purport to support) is actually the point which you are having difficulty grasping I think. But you probably think that is good business sense too. Scenario One - ------------ M2 owner requires rewind crank. Leica supplies rewind crank to skilled elf like Sherry Krauter or DAG M2 owner gets slam-bam job, fast turnaround, is very happy. Leica is down one rewind crank. M2 owner buys an M7 and holds out for the Digital R against all naysayers. Scenario 2 - ---------- M2 owner requires rewind crank Leica refuses to supply crank to skilled elf, forcing skilled elf out of business and causing bad feeling in M2 owner. M2 owner is forced to ship M2 to Leica, who take six months to repair it, charge more and do a worse job than the skilled elf. M2 owner feels even worse. Leica is down one rewind crank, the customer's goodwill, and the M7 the customer coulda-mighta-woulda bought next year. The customer buys a Canon 1Ds and a bunch of L-series lenses and sells their Leica gear, driving down the price of used Leica gear (and by implication the price that they can charge for new Leica gear, even with Hermes logo) and also torpedoing the digital R which they now wouldn't touch with a barge pole. It is up the margin on the repair - let's say a hundred bucks - and down one customer - let's say around a thousand bucks margin over the next five years. In both scenarios they are down one rewind crank. The parts aren't the issue. JB Lesson #1 in business: don't piss away goodwill. On Friday, July 25, 2003, at 08:12 PM, Gary Williams wrote: > > > With availability of parts the issue, would Leica sell the old tooling > (assuming it even exists today) to a third party? There are copyright > and > control issues as well as a bunch of legal stuff that would likely > make this > unattractive to a third party. And could a third party actually show a > profit making parts for 40 year old photo gear with perhaps one > generation > of use remaining before they're mostly out of circulation anyway? > - -- John Brownlow pictures: http://www.pinkheadedbug.com warblog: http://www.unintended-consequences.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html