Thats scary! And how do they suppose they are going to get x% of the
digtal camera market, I forgot what the quote was? I dont know what is
going to save them from getting out of the DSLR business. Only their
pride and the cachet of having a DSLR will keep them making them.
John Francis wrote:
I doubt if the margin is anywhere near that high. I think Pentax got
hurt very badly by having to drop the price of the *ist-D by so much,
so fast after introduction (the release price was $1695). Just three
months later the price had dropped $450. There went the margins!
Its hard to believe they would only have sold 25K units. That wouldnt
pay but just a few engineer's salaries + overhead. Assuming a margin of
a couple hundred bucks.
rg
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
P&S digital cameras sales grew at a high rate. prices dropped even faster.
plus a supply foulup with very few cameras being shipped for a short time
made the difference. the digital camera division might have made money in
the quarter otherwise. the telling factor is the *istD sales. if the numbers
are true, Pentax has sold fewer than 25K units since it was introduced more
than 10 months ago. from all reports the Digital Rebel and D70 are selling
almost 4 times as many each month. i am sure selling 25K *istD units did not
in any way recover the cost of developing the camera, and if the current
rate continues, it will take 3 or 4 years to do so. if it were just the
digital cameras, things wouldn't be so bad, but the endoscope and optical
pickup lens prices fell faster than anticipated too and those divisions
didn't make nearly as much as expected. Canon and Nikon have the DSLR market
wrapped up and are pulling away rapidly from all of the competition. they
are meeting their marketing goals.
Herb....
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Miers" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 12:49 PM
Subject: RE: Pentax 1Q news FY-05
Do you suppose all the companies will experience similar problems due to
the
market becoming somewhat saturated already? They all must be having
problems selling since it is slowly driving the prices down.
You know it seems unlikely that even the pros demanding high end digital
technology can provided enough business to justify manufacturer of this
type
of equipment. I would think they still depend on amateurs and enthusiasts
to make their minimum sales quota. If these quotas cannot be met it could
cause a lot of bad things. Future R&D in digital higher end systems could
see a huge slow down. Availability of same could be limited and continue
to
be extremely pricey for a long time. Whether or not this trend could
prolong the life of film though is still iffy since film usage is still
driven by P&S type cameras which may still continue well with digicams.
Although I would expect that higher end film is driven by SLR usage mainly
which might get a bit of a reprieve over all of this.
