And your point is? I never stated Pentax should make K/M AE support FREE or put in in every DSLR body. Even if it costs $50 in actual per unit cost to PENTAX ( which I dont agree it will, this is a hypothetical) , dont you think it would be worth way MORE than that to the buyers who want/need it and could EASILY be a profitable venture for Pentax if for example a better model with it sells for $200 more than the models without it?
I say this because this is a flawed theory that the cheaper you make the body to produce, even if you remove key features in the process is always smart business sense. Its not. people dont want major stripped down cameras that are only a few percent cheaper than full featured one. The decision of whether to remove or maintain a feature depends on how much it costs to build it vs how much more its worth to the customer in SELLING PRICE. JCO -----Original Message----- From: David Mann [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 2:41 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Camera engineering (was Re: Rename request) On Sep 23, 2005, at 8:53 AM, Pål Jensen wrote: > There is no revenue for supporting obsolete equipment made 30 years > ago. They make 120 000 DSLR's a year. If the feature cost $10 a > body then its 1 200 000 out of the window. BTW $10 of parts+labour in the factory becomes $40 or $50 by the time it's sitting in the shop window. At Pentax's end, by the time you add design, tooling and prototyping costs, plus whatever compromises and extra product testing are required, you can probably add another $1.2M up front, before the product is even released onto the market. A manufacturer's margin tends to be razor-thin at the best of times so they won't be willing to add cost unless it's going to generate a significant amount of extra sales. Hence the use of that wonderful document, the business case*. It really is no fun being a manufacturer these days. Cheers, - Dave * Yes I've had my experiences with those... seeing them ignored for pet projects or political/funding reasons, seeing them written after- the-fact to justify a decision that's already been made, etc... "Dilbert" is a documentary, you know ;)
