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Re: [OM] Olympus in Tokyo

Subject: Re: [OM] Olympus in Tokyo
From: PCA Cala <PCACala@xxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 00:51:24 EST
Hi Tomoko and others:

<< If Olympus America can do a better job of recapturing some segment of the
photography market for the OM system, we would all feel more comfortable about
the future of our cameras. >>

It is no wonder that the market for new manual focus camera equipment has all
but dried up in North America.  First and IMHO foremost, most Americans buyers
favor the latest and (according to successful marketing) "greatest."  John
P.'s commentary on the Darlington is a great case in point illustrating the
herd principle of folks following what appears to be the choices of the
masses.  Microsoft's product dominance with MS Office suite applications would
be a parallel comparison in computing.  Only the rebels, die hards, price
conscious, uninformed, and other hard to market types buck the trend and use
competing products and fight (or ignore) the "fear, uncertainty and doubt"
that Microsoft's marketing machine instills upon us.  I offer that Canon and
Nikon, and the banner carrying photography magazines, have sold many on
systems that may not really suit their needs and temperments.  (Example, who
needs a motor driven 35mm camera for landscapes!).  Furthermore, their
marketing dominance have led us to question the shelf life of competing
products.

Second reason for the dying product lines: there is a strong used equipment
market, esp. with road shows.  If you want bargains without much shopping
effort, this is the place to go!  Low demand for new = higher unit prices.  So
why buy new?

Third, selling and buying over the Internet has seen explosive growth.  Do we
not see equipment getting bought right here just minutes after appearing in
our e-mail boxes?  Net result is that the manual equipment is easy to get,
albeit the bargains may slip through our fingers.  So why buy new?

Faced with those three realities, how can those camera companies, who flooded
the No. Amer. markets with manual focus products in the 1970s through the
lates 1980s, see their product lines survive?  They can't!  There is SO much
used manual equipment available in certain parts of the world that is a simple
matter of supply and demand.  The Internet-based vendors now seem to be
contributing to more equally distributing the supply worldwide.  The high
prices we Americans often see in many Shutterbug advertisers and on their WWW
sites are much more attractive to foreign buyers.  And the stuff is flowing in
that direction.  When used equipment stocks start getting low there might be a
chance for a new initiative.  But there has to be something in the product
that commands our attention.  WE know what it is in the OLY OM lineup, but
other folks may just have too much fear, uncertainty, and doubt.  Clearly, OLY
America's marketing hasn't done much to fight that, even with some stellar
products.

I've also heard that OLY America blew it by requiring a rather large minimum
equipment inventory to be an OM dealer.  That greatly decreased the sources
for new equipment, prices increased and demand dropped.  But that is a
different story which has perhaps been discussed here before.

Gary Reese
Las Vegas, NV

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