The issue is gaining market share. Newcomers are more frequently swayed by price. It is not until they are more experienced that they realize they will need those extra-cost features. Newcomers will buy this Canon, not the starkistdee.
Pentax will price it and market it to meet their targets, whatever they are. The *ist-D is no Rebel Digital. They compete in different segments. If Pentax wanted to compete with a Rebel Digital, they would have called it a ZX-D or something like that.
btw, you can now get a Nikon D100 for US$1,499. That's a US$100-US$200 price cut, I think.
--jc
