Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/01/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The point was that Hasselblad seems to finally gotten the message and is trying to do something about it, even if it's late in the game. Meanwhile over in Solms they still appear to be pretty clueless. Obviously both companies in trouble and there is a good chance that they will not make it. But in general I think we seem to be on the verge of a shakeout in the market as a whole. How long do you think Minolta/Konica or Pentax is going to be able to hang in there? Is Olympus far behind? From a distance it appears that really only Canon and maybe Sony in the consumer market are really secure. For the past few years Nikon has been looking like it's one serious screw up away from being a footnote in photographic history. If they drop the ball with the D2x, they are done for in anything but the prosumer market. The D2H was a big misstep; the 1d II pretty much annihilated it the day it came out. So, I think it's safe to say that the entire market is in turmoil. feli On Jan 21, 2005, at 9:04 PM, Daniel Ridings wrote: > > Hasselblad is as far, or further, down the road of financial problems > than > Leica. It's hard to guess who will go down first, Leica or Hasselblad. > Leica has already started taking some of the same measures: stopping > production, for example. > > But Hasselblad has gotten a raw deal. The company was bought up (by the > Swiss) in the 90's. At that time Hasselblad had an advanced R&D group > working on digital. > > The new owners said "No. Stick to film." and dismantled all R&D. Yet > new > owners (Honk Kong) have now decided digital it the thing. Day late and > a > dollar short. > > So in Hasselblad's case it wasn't management so much as greedy capital > that ruined them. > > Same process is going on with Kodak, Ilford, but not Agfa (as much). > "Forget new products, new directions, milk the cow you have as long as > you > can and then liquidate." > > Leica's cow is people with too much money in their pocket. Leica's > business idea is to lighten their load. Photography doesn't have > anything > to do with it. There's nothing a new Leica can do that my M2 can't do. > Nothing. You push the shutter and it takes a picture. I like that. > Thank-you Leica. We're both old fogies, Leica with their technology and > film users. Our days are numbered. Soon some of us relics will be > figuring > in glossy b/w magazines for fine art. Most of us won't. > > Daniel > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > ________________________________________________________ feli2@earthlink.net 2 + 2 = 4 www.elanphotos.com