No surprise here. Isn't this what we all (should have) expected when Hoya
bought Pentax to get the non-camera parts of the company (e.g., endoscope)?
Hoya is an optics company, not a camera company. The surprise is that with
the world-wide depr (oops) recession, they waited this long.
Perhaps, Hoya hoped that Samsung would be a full-time partner. However, this
is not the way the Samsung CEO has stipulated he wants to run Samsung. If
Samsung can't be a major player in an area, he wants them to concentrate on
venues where they are or will be a major player.I don't think that their
adventure with Pentax led anyone to think of Samsung as a force in DSLRs.
Casio has been expanding up-market. However, Kashio-san already had an
arrangement with Pentax to make his lenses. I don't think he saw sufficient
bottom line benefit in the Pentax name on Casio digicam lenses. It hasn't
been there for years.
Panasonic seems wedded to their lens size, and has a relationship with Leica
for a name on the glass.
I guess, this leaves the two former film giants - Fuji and Kodak and perhaps
independent lens manufacturers like Sigma and Tamron. How likely is any of
these to succeed?
I've been shooting Pentax bodies and lenses since just before my 41 year old
daughter was born. I love the quality of the old lenses and that they work
on my new DSLRs. I've got 3 DSLRs and even new lenses and flashes, etc. But
I'm an old guy. Other than health care or nursing homes, I wouldn't want to
actively invest in an industry with a bunch of people like me as my target
audience/market going forward.
The K7 seems to be a good start to a better future. Then again, I thought
that the K10d and the *istD were bold entries and look at how much Pentax
made on them. If Hoya wants to have an attractive package for a potential
partner, they have to have a road map showing a path to future expanded
profit and market share. And, perhaps more importantly, they have to define
the role they want each of the partners to play going forward. Let's hope
they do.
Larry in Dallas
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
[email protected]
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
