Peter,
I wasn't trying to make a perfect analogy, as seems to be the expectation
around here.
My point was that low prices alone, don't necessarily lead to increased
market share, which is probably so obvious it was pointless for me to state
it. :-)
Market dominance and brand recognition holds trump in the minds of most
consumers. When consumers see that Pentax's top end model is only $10 - $50
more than a Canon or Nikon, do you think they're likely to think:
A) Wow, I can get a K10D for just a little more than a Rebel or D40X!
or
B) Wow, why would I spend this much for a Pentax when I can get a Canon or
Nikon for the same or less!
Pentax does not yet have an upward path from the K10D. In most consumer's
minds a 10MP camera is a 10MP camera. Most of the other features don't
matter. Body sealing probably doesn't matter. SR might in some cases. The
K10D will look like an equivalent item to most people, especially if priced
equivalently. If Pentax had a sub-K10D 10MP model, the K10D, and then
something above the K10D like a 12 - 16 MP body, then they could let the
strip version take the profit hit to acquire market share, while making it
up on the higher end.
Tom C.
From: "P. J. Alling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]>
To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Hoya-Pentax Future - News
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:58:18 -0400
Bad analogy, Microsoft uses it's monopoly position as much as technical
superiority or any other factor to insure sales, (PC manufactures get a
price break sometimes a huge price break, which they'll forfeit if they
offer a competing OS). Linux producers make very little profit and are
not necessarily interested in pretending to ease of use, which MS always
pretends to.
Canon did just that. They built market share at the expense of profits
to get to the position where they can sell cheap plastic junk for large
amounts of money. (so I overstated the case so sue me). Pentax needs to
build market share. They were taking the long view. Hoya doesn't seem to
see it that way. This is too bad since this is the first time Pentax
seems to have taken the long view since the early 70's.
Tom C wrote:
> Where will Pentax end up at though?
>
> Ficticious figures pulled out of air.
>
> Canon sells 500,000 low end cameras at 20% profit.
> Pentax sells 100,000 medium-high end cameras at 5% profit.
>
> Case in point. Linux is a free operating system (nothing to do with
whether
> it's good, better, etc.) Has it yet, in the real sense, overtaken
Windows
> which Microsoft is making money hand-over-fist on? Pentax surely wants
to
> gain some market share, but doing so at the expense of profits, is not
> necessarily a winning strategy.
>
> Tom C.
>
>
>> Hmmm. My theory has sort of been the opposite, i.e. that many people
are
>> buying K10Ds etc. these days because they seem to represent decent
>> quality and the right amount of features at a very reasonable price.
>> While I suspect Pentax would loose out to Canon and Nikon (even more)
if
>> they tried to make an impression of being more "upmarket". And perhaps
>> also if they went further along the line of really cheap high-volume
>> products.
>>
>> - Toralf
>>
>>
>>> best,
>>> mishka
>>>
>
>
>
>
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