To further elucidate: I don't think this business decision is nearly as simple as you make it to be even if you new exactly how many camera unit sales were gained or lost by inclusion or removal of the K/M support. Its because if you lose a sale on the camera you may also lose ALL future sales on all cameras and lenses by EACH customer who decides to permanently abandon ship with that final straw type "business" decision and that can cost you WAY more money in the long run than the simple units sales information on this particular model would indicate...Not to mention the cost of losing your customer care reputation forever too...So bottom line is there isnt any way to accurately measure the cost of screwing pentax system owners without cause even if its unintentional due to plain outright stupidity at the top of the company, its too complex and with too many variables and total unknowns.. In other words, its risky "business".
jco -----Original Message----- From: Mark Erickson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 12:49 AM To: 'pentax-discuss' Subject: RE: Camera engineering (was Re: Rename request) My Question: >> >> Specifically, I asked about how many more camera body sales Pentax >> might have lost by not including full K/M compatibility. I also asked >> for estimates of the costs related to adding the capability. Let me >> clarify my question and ask you for an estimate of how many camera >> body sales (of any model) Pentax might have lost (or may lose in the >> future) by including only partial K/M compatibility across their >> entire DSLR line. Care to publish some estimates? >"J. C. O'Connell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> responded: > > no way, that would take TONS of reasearch of something I don't > need to know. Even for a wild guess? You talk of "millions of lenses" in other posts, but you won't guess whether Pentax might lose "hundreds of sales" or "thousands of sales" or "tens of thousands of sales"? Without some kind of order of magnitude estimate like this, it is very hard to make a case from a business perspective for choosing between partial and full K/M compatibility. That's fine, but it does limit your argument. --Mark
