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[OM] Re: [Digital] It's over

Subject: [OM] Re: [Digital] It's over
From: Manuel Viet <oly@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 09:53:09 +0100
Le lundi 27 Février 2006 06:45, Winsor Crosby a écrit :
> Sadly, I agree. Oly's main weakness in my opinion has been their
> ability to bring new product to market. It was true of the OMs and
> why they faltered. It is why they brought a 5MP professional DSLR to
> market 2 years too late and compelled them to drop their price to
> compete against entry DSLRs with more resolution, drastically
> destroying the profit margin they had planned for the E-1. The
> increase in DSLR sales this year is predicted to be much smaller than
> last and next year even less. Oly had a chance if they had brought a
> competitive E-1 replacement and a finished lens line to market early
> this year, but now I wonder about its future.

Am I the only one to hold another analysis ? While I'd really love to see Oly 
competing in the pro dslr market, I don't think they'll loose anything by 
staying outside. Everybody's speaking about "margins", but what are those 
margins really ? Canon can't choose between full frame and aps-c, nikon is 
frown at for sticking to a small sensor, and most others are already 
bankrupts. Are Canon and nikon big sellers ? They may be the biggest in the 
pro market, but what's that market compared to the total photography market ? 
As far as economy goes, Oly has a strong hold in the consumer market, where 
the margins really are because cameras are cheaper to build and the market is 
wider ; and there, they're selling Mjus by the dozen. Add to this that 
olympus has a long time policy to avoid paying patents' licenses at all cost, 
and you have a perfectly bankable outsider, able to enter any market at any 
time, with strong r&d capacities, and time to learn what the market really 
wants. Long live olympus ! Basicaly I view today's pessimistics as I would 
have looked at people complaining that leica wasn't building foldings in the 
30's.

-- 
Manuel Viet

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