Re: Why and How I switched to Canon (for those who care) long

[Herb Chong]

the camera market is nothing like the car market in how fast it moves, 
especially in price erosion. also, like it or not, there are clear specs 
that get noticeably better with every generation. cars improve in barely 
noticeable ways between generations. until DSLRs do that too, which won't be 
for a couple of years yet, even a few months is enough to turn a camera that 
makes money into one that doesn't even when it is continuing to sell, 
because the price has to drop rapidly to stay competitive.

the entry level cameras are almost loss leaders in the DSLR market. if the 
yen appreciates too much or price erosion happens just a tiny bit faster 
than Pentax assumes (which most financial analysts think is too optimistic), 
the *istD will lose money on every sale. to make money, like Canon does, in 
the DSLR market, you have to sell a high enough end camera that doesn't 
suffer from price erosion. the 1Ds sold at the same price from initial 
availability right up until the 1Ds Mk2 started shipping. that is what a 
higher end camera gets Pentax.

Herb...
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Stenquist" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <pentax-discuss@pdml.net>
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 8:38 PM
Subject: Re: Why and How I switched to Canon (for those who care) long


Pentax will have at least an APS upgrade when the time is right. Don't 
forget, the big seller, the *istDS, has only been on the market for a 
short time. You don't release an upgrade until a substantial amount of 
your owner base is ready to move up. In the car biz, I think they shoot 
for 40%. I think we'll see an APS camera by this time next year. I'm also 
quite confident that it will be at least 10mp, because you have to 
motivate the upgrade.