I think you guys are thinking of things in the old way. Make a whole
bunch of cameras and stick them in a warehouse somewhere and sell them
for a few years.
I kind of doubt the istDS2 is discontinued. I would bet that the problem
is that they are selling faster than they can stick them into the
pipeline so they are hard to get. Japanese companies also give priority
to their home market so if there is a shortage other countries are going
to get shorted. The reason that someplace like Canada would have some
while they are hard to get in the US is simply that they are not selling
their quotas as fast as they are being sold in the US. Translation, they
are selling them faster than they can make them.
Just a bit too late, it the current mode of sales. It is the way the
corporate mind works these days. You are just going to have to live with
it.
graywolf
http://www.graywolfphoto.com
http://webpages.charter.net/graywolf
"Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof"
-----------------------------------
Joseph Tainter wrote:
Shel wrote:
"This whole experience of trying to find a camera that was released only
a few months ago has been an eye-opening experience. That the camera
has been replaced with a lower speced version, the istDL, says something
about Pentax, that they don't have a clue as to what they're doing."
The most bizarre thing about Pentax's current behavior is that they are
walking away from money on the table.
For an unknown length of time, they will leave the market without their
most popular, mid-priced model.
People have been clamoring for the better FA and FA* lenses, yet Pentax
discontinues them. When Pentax switched to autofocus, it took them 13
years to complete the lens line-up (1987-2000). While I am pleased at
what I see on the roadmap, there are many large holes to fill yet,
especially at the telephoto end. How long will these lenses take a small
company to produce? In the meantime, why not produce the FA and FA* lenses.
It has been suggested that Pentax lost money on the FA* lenses. Maybe
so, but the market is so strong now that Pentax could sell those lenses
at a higher price. Some of them now sell used on eBay for more than the
sold for new.
I am very glad to see signs of life and rationality, maybe even
strategy, in the recent announcements. But they are still doing some
very strange things.
How could a company leave the market without its most popular products?
Joe
