>I could draw parallels with Betamax and the Macintosh (the relative
>"failures" of both products being due almost wholly to their
>manufacturers' failures to market and/or license them properly)...
"Failure" is a loaded term. If you had purchased $1000 of Apple stock last
year, it would be worth nearly $2000 today, but I guess you would still be
a "failure."
There is a fundamental dynamic going on here that people fail to
appreciate. Olympus is a niche player. They are not mainstream. Get used to
it! In fact, many of us are attracted to such "outliers" for whatever
reason, and would probably abandon Olympus should it become a "me too"
player in the middle of the bell curve, catering to all, satisfying none.
I suspect that Sony Betamax (they still make them -- look in any broadcast
studio), Apple Macintosh, and Olympus OM all have more market share in
their respective fields than Lamborghini (sp?) and maybe even Porsche, but
no one is clamoring to take those companies to court for not marketing
their products properly. In fact, if everyone drove a Porsche, I dare say
many present day Porsche owners would move on to something else.
As one more example, if you had bought Volvo stock last year, you'd now own
a bit of Ford! Ford, in its wisdom, has said things at Volvo will proceed
independently. They know if they ripped off the "Volvo" sticker on each car
and replaced it with "Ford" they would kill the market.
So chill out, and live in the moment! All your arguments about service,
support, and "the future" would be met if Canon or Nikon bought Olympus and
immediately started producing wonderbricks with the Olympus name on them.
That would be a fate worse than the "death of Olympus" that you imagine is
imminent!
: Jan Steinman <mailto:jans@xxxxxxxxxxx>
: 19280 Rydman Court, West Linn, OR 97068-1331 USA
: +1.503.635.3229
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