[Leica] a serious question

[frank.dernie at btinternet.com (FRANK DERNIE)]

Leica is a tiny company. The investment needed to produce the volumes that 
would be required to compete with Canon would be impossible to raise, 
particularly if it just meant another Canon level product with small 
differences and a different name. Making a premium product in small 
quantities guarantees a very high price, small increases in quality 
requiring exponential increases in design and manufacturing cost.

The question is, are there enough customers to buy the new lenses to pay for 
the development and tooling cost?

If Leica products produce noticably better results than N or C, as I would 
imagine list members have found, is this difference worth paying the extra? 
Only the individual can answer that, for you personally clearly not.

I would suggest that you look at the specialist Ocean Optics macro lenses 
for a reasonable compatison to Leica, price and production quantity-wise, 
not the mass produced items from C & N.

Also it is very much the weak Dollar that makes Leica look so expensive in 
the USA, here in Europe the prices have gone up a more modest amount.

I design racing cars, I once was involved in a study to look at the design 
and manufacture of a road sports car using racing car materials and 
construction (like a McLaren F1). The manufacturing cost spread over 200 
cars was around 300,000 UK pounds each, compare that with current road cars 
who's manufacturing cost is about 10% of retail price. The car would be much 
higher performance than anything currently available, but no way to sell so 
many, so the project was not followed through.

Leica products being expensive should not be a surprise, given the 
production quantities. Whether these products are profitable -even at these 
prices- will depend on whether enough get sold.

Frank


--- On Thu, 25/9/08, Philip Forrest <photo.forrest@earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: Philip Forrest <photo.forrest@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] a serious question
> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug@leica-users.org>
> Date: Thursday, 25 September, 2008, 4:43 PM
> So what is the reason that Leica has just a tiny fraction of
> the market
> share then? Yes, they are great products, incredible at
> what they do.
> Just too expensive for the company to compete with the big
> two in
> volume. Leica's cult of exclusivity and incredible high
> price is what
> keeps them down. 
> PhilFo
> 
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