Ricoh bought Pentax for their technology. engineering and
manufacturing. That doesn't always show up in products. Kodak had
patents that never saw the light of day as products, some of which
seemed to be quite intersting. I expect that Pentax has a treasure trove
of lens related designs and research that Ricoh really wanted. Their
factories produce pretty good products, QC could be better, but then you
should read the Canon forums if you want to see real wining. I think
that Pentax was aiming to be the force in APS-C cameras, and that's
still the direction Ricoh is going in. They've promised a FF camera
"Real Soon Now!"(tm). Maybe it will happen, after all no one with any
realistic expectations, expected to actually see a 645D, until they did.
On 7/2/2013 7:13 PM, Mark C wrote:
I wonder WHY Ricoh purchased Pentax..... The cachet of the Pentax
brand? It was already pretty tarnished in the overall marketplace in
2011 when the deal took place... The huge market share of loyal Pentax
users... like us? If so, they did little hold onto that base... To
provide a brand and platform for kick ass new cameras... All we've
gotten so far are incremental improvements in the 2010 Pentax line up,
while the competition kicks out innovative products.... Maybe Pentax
has some patents that Ricoh wanted, or perhaps they sought secret
journals of Takuma Kajiware...
From the outside it looked like Ricoh bought Pentax and neither
invested in it or scrapped it. It's like buying a house and neither
moving in nor flipping it, but just letting it sit empty.
I think that the name change must signify something simply because
Corporations don't overcome inertia and do something, though it could
be a petty or trial reason.
If the name change means that Ricoh gave the old Pentax management two
years to get their act together and time's up and Ricoh is coming in
and starting to move things... that would be good news. Somehow I am
not getting my hopes up.
Mark
On 7/2/2013 5:59 PM, Tom C wrote:
Paul Stenquist wrote:
OMG! They changed the name of the parent company. They didn't slaughter
innocents.
Hi Paul,
My crystal ball is broken.:) However, I have to feel the question is
WHY?
You've worked in very large corporations. CEO's, Boards, strategists
generally just don't sit around and make these decisions willy-nilly
(well OK, sometimes yes).
When Ricoh acquired PENTAX and the name changed to include PENTAX, it
was generally viewed as a good thing. It could be interpreted, that if
nothing else, Ricoh viewed PENTAX as a partner of sorts, and everyone
thought 'Hurrah for PENTAX!
So when the name changes to remove PENTAX, it raises, at the least,
questions as to why. If one thinks conversely to the above it means 1)
maybe the opposite, 2) maybe Ricoh feels the PENTAX part of the name
does not enhance the Ricoh image, 3) maybe the folks at Ricoh are
arrogant bastards and want their old name back, 4) maybe nothing at
all, or 5) something completely different (a Monthy Python camera
perhaps)... couldn't resist.
Since cause and effect is a universal rule, option 4 is unlikely.
Only time will tell.
Tom C.
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