Well in the P&S world, most of them are made by third party manufactures. Many of them only have a slightly different plastic outside body with a different name on it. Though some manufactures have their own lens put on also, others just have their name put on the standard lens. AFAIK Pentax does not make any of their P&S camera, though I have heard that they do supply the SMC lens elements.
If the same camera with an unknown name on it sells for $100 and with a namebrand on it for $200, I do not believe that no one is making money selling it. The only companies actually losing money are ones like Kodak that are writing the lost off against one of their cash cows (military sales of chemicals maybe) for tax purposes.
graywolf http://www.graywolfphoto.com "Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof" -----------------------------------
Herb Chong wrote:
sometime in the next 2 years, the number of brands still in the market will halve. it's also part of the reason that Panasonic and Sony are expected to enter the DSLR market while profit margins are still high compared to digital P&S cameras. prices are dropping faster than efficiencies because of volume. digital P&S models aren't in production long enough to accumulate much efficiencies.
Herb.... ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Mann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 5:12 AM Subject: Re: OT: Digital camera sales in the USA
In the case of digital camera manufacturers the quantities are already huge and they're all major players, so it may be simply capitalism doing its thing with what I'll call the "chicken" model. People seem to be conditioned into buying mainly on price so if the company has iron b*lls they just need to stick it out and hope their competitors go broke first.
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