It's kind of an odd solution, really. Digicams, as I understand it,
have stopped being very profitable largely because they've become a
high-volume low-profit item in a cutthroat marketplace. They've
become widget-ized like cell phones or toaster ovens. Digital SLRs,
on the other hand, would seem to be a pretty low volume item. I know
there was a time in the 70's when 35mm SLRs were a very sexy item,
but that was also at a time when high-end stereo sales were driving a
similarly very strange marketplace. I can recall a newsletter from a
place I used to shop for stereo components back in the day that
started off with a paragraph about how their crack sales team could
have opted to be astronauts, but instead they were selling McIntosh
amps and Klipsch speakers. I'd love to be wrong, but I have a hard
time imagining the DSLR market taking off the way the 35mm SLR market
took off back in the day. For one thing, people don't want to carry
bulky electronics around anymore. They want to take a photo with
their cell phone and send it out to all their friends instantly.
They'd probably jump at an iPod with an integrated 8 mp camera that
could wirelessly communicate with their cell phones, but a 2-pound
wonderbrick? Maybe I'm way off base, but this "we're looking to DSLR
sales to save our photography division" talk sounds like desperation.
It's like VW saying, "We're counting on Phaeton sales to make up for
lagging Beetle numbers."
On Jul 19, 2005, at 9:43 AM, Winsor Crosby wrote:
> Yes, hope so. If the digicam profits have shrunk so that makers are
> shifting quickly to DSLRs for the bottom line it could be like the
> Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." There should be
> some very interesting new models, but I suspect that the market will
> quickly become saturated with models that satisfy people's needs as
> has happened with digicams. The makers that move quickly with new
> competitive models will do well and the slow ones may not make it.
> Let us hope that both Olympus and Kodak show some new energy.
>
> Winsor
> Long Beach, California, USA
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