----- Original Message ----- From: "P. J. Alling" Subject: Re: The JCO survey
> Obviously you haven't been reading the literature, or noticed that > every > manufacture with the expertise and manufacturing capability is trying > to > get into the DSLR business, if there weren't high profits, there > wouldn't be new entrants to the field. There are also high costs so > you > won't see any small players getting involved. The fact that Sony, > Samsung, Panasonic, etc. are entering the field alone should tell you > that. Just because the store and sales employee don't see much of it > doesn't mean it isn't there. > > I hate to say back in the good old days but what the hell. When the > first wave of electronics began to replace mechanicals in SLRs in the > late 1970s, I was selling cameras, damn I was young then. I made most > of my income from Prize Money, manufactures would pay prizes for > selling > particular items, usually it was paid to the store, but the company I > worked for passed most of it on to the employee. Cameras like the ME > and the Minolta XD which replaced a lot of precision mechanical parts > with electronics were quite profitable, based on the Prize Money paid > out and we sold boat loads of them. I don't doubt that the same holds > true of DSLRs. I started selling cameras at about the same time AF SLR cameras started coming out. There was tremendous price competition at the time, and everyone from the manufacturers right to the stores had to accept really slim margins. If you didn't, then the camera on the next shelf over that did the same thing for 5 bucks less was the one that sold. The real money back then was in lenses and accessories. Bodies were pretty much a loss leader to get some glass and flash units sold. I pay attention to the market, up until a few months ago, I was still part of that marketing machine. Were you? If SLRs were that profitable, where is Topcon, Miranda, Petri, Praktica, Zeiss, Rollei, Mamiya (35mm), and all the others that dropped by the wayside? William Robb -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
