Alin Flaider wrote:
> (Unconfirmed) rumors are that Minolta is in big trouble with
> its recently announced digital SLRs Dimage 7 and 5. It seems
> they have problems with the CCD chips (4 and 5 MPixel) and
> release is delayed for October (it was expected for May).
I have heard the "after summer" date from beginning on. The 3M Pentax
EI-3000 is also not available in the next months.
> Besides, Minolta lost 40% of share price in the past 3 months.
> Apparently they grossly overestimated demand for Maxxum 7 to 60,000(!)
> units/month while they only manage to sell 8000, losing 3 millions USD
> each month. Digital SLRs were their life-buoy, now this is sinking as
> well.
This figures are hard to believe, even though I also have heard that
Minolta is in trouble (since 2 years already). They recently
reorganized and relocated more business units outside Japan. In fact,
digital cameras are planned as their main business area for the
future. Delays in this product area are a problem indeed, but this is
not unusual. I somehow doubt they had such high expectations in the
Minolta 7 worldwide, but maybe this refers to the US market and
Minolta US distributor? The US consumer market in general is not so
hot any more, and the Elan 7 of course was the winner amongst the
advanced mid class releases. Canon just celebrated another incredible
record in lens sales, so interest in system cameras basically is
still alive.
> Bad management or dying SLR breed? ... Now I'm positive we won't see
> any film body beyond MZ-S; we are lucky if we get the upgraded MZ-3.
Kodak just announced the cut of 3500 jobs due to the decreasing
consumer demand. However, I don't know whether this is mainly due to
the situation in the US or has something to do with interest in
photography in general.
Pentax is in a special situation with their 5-10% market share.
Till 1996, they made 4 completely different camera chassis. In
the last 5 years it was basically only one, and this allowed them to
survive without large volume. Minoltas range e.g. is a mess regarding
production efficiency - hence they demand on volume. The MZ-S might
somehow be a test balloon how far this can go. Here the conventional
SLR shares parts with a digital sibling they wanted to introduce for
several reasons. While I'm sure we will see new MZ-derivates in
future too, I also have doubts that a real solitary SLR design is
possible any longer.
Ralf
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