I doubt if the margin is anywhere near that high. I think Pentax got hurt very badly by having to drop the price of the *ist-D by so much, so fast after introduction (the release price was $1695). Just three months later the price had dropped $450. There went the margins!
> Its hard to believe they would only have sold 25K units. That wouldnt > pay but just a few engineer's salaries + overhead. Assuming a margin of > a couple hundred bucks. > > rg > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > P&S digital cameras sales grew at a high rate. prices dropped even faster. > > plus a supply foulup with very few cameras being shipped for a short time > > made the difference. the digital camera division might have made money in > > the quarter otherwise. the telling factor is the *istD sales. if the numbers > > are true, Pentax has sold fewer than 25K units since it was introduced more > > than 10 months ago. from all reports the Digital Rebel and D70 are selling > > almost 4 times as many each month. i am sure selling 25K *istD units did not > > in any way recover the cost of developing the camera, and if the current > > rate continues, it will take 3 or 4 years to do so. if it were just the > > digital cameras, things wouldn't be so bad, but the endoscope and optical > > pickup lens prices fell faster than anticipated too and those divisions > > didn't make nearly as much as expected. Canon and Nikon have the DSLR market > > wrapped up and are pulling away rapidly from all of the competition. they > > are meeting their marketing goals. > > > > Herb.... > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "David Miers" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 12:49 PM > > Subject: RE: Pentax 1Q news FY-05 > > > > > > > >>Do you suppose all the companies will experience similar problems due to > > > > the > > > >>market becoming somewhat saturated already? They all must be having > >>problems selling since it is slowly driving the prices down. > > > > > >>You know it seems unlikely that even the pros demanding high end digital > >>technology can provided enough business to justify manufacturer of this > > > > type > > > >>of equipment. I would think they still depend on amateurs and enthusiasts > >>to make their minimum sales quota. If these quotas cannot be met it could > >>cause a lot of bad things. Future R&D in digital higher end systems could > >>see a huge slow down. Availability of same could be limited and continue > > > > to > > > >>be extremely pricey for a long time. Whether or not this trend could > >>prolong the life of film though is still iffy since film usage is still > >>driven by P&S type cameras which may still continue well with digicams. > >>Although I would expect that higher end film is driven by SLR usage mainly > >>which might get a bit of a reprieve over all of this. > > > > > > >
