company survival trumps promises. the imaging products division continues to
lose money and only the most optimistic forecasts say that it will make
money in 2007. breakeven in 2006 is possible with some luck. because of
Pentax's bottom feeder strategy for DSLRs, the only part of the imaging
products division making money, even tiny additional parts or assembly costs
have to be shaved. if you think competition in the camera industry is bad
now, wait until next year.
i see Pentax working as hard to be as compatible as they can afford to and
no harder. i fully expect that the next higher end digital body will also be
without aperture lever and will have no more compatibility than any existing
digital body. in the next couple of years, there will be fewer and fewer new
Pentax lenses with aperture rings because there will be no production body
that needs them. the people that matter to Pentax are the ones that buy new
Pentax equipment now.
Herb....
----- Original Message -----
From: "P. J. Alling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2005 9:04 PM
Subject: Re: Pentax K 2.5/200mm
Pentax made a promise. If they don't keep it, then what assurance do you
have that anything they promise, either implicitly or expressly, will be
honored? The answer is none. JCO is right. At which point there is no
longer any reason for brand loyalty to Pentax. It's a short sighted
business decision, indicative of HBS MBA thinking. This kind of thing
kills companies, eventually we will all go to Canon. If we can't have
continuity then at least we can have the latest technology.
