Thought some would be interested.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Takeshita K <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Nov 1, 2007 1:49 AM Subject: Re: Interesting times with Pentax To: Thibouille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> On 10/31/07 9:01 AM, "Thibouille", <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Were you able to grab any new information on Pentax future ? Hi Thibouille, Sorry for the belated reply Things appear to be calm now but Hoya announced a couple of days ago that they finally reached an agreement with Pentax to merge effective March 31, 2008 (originally schedule for this month). In there, they outlined what they want to do with Pentax. Name of the new company would be Hoya, so Pentax Corp. will end. But new company will keep the Pentax brand. Among others, they have following visions on Imaging System area. 1. They will consolidate (translation: eliminate) cheaper P&S digital cameras as it is very difficult to differentiate themselves in this category. They will only pursue something unique and perhaps higher priced. 2. They will continue development of P&S digicam with unique features and capabilities in the price bracket of over $600~$700. 3. In general, they set the target to the market that has more than average attractions to cameras and photography in general, i.e., enthusiast market. They will concentrate the effort in developing higher end cameras even if the price might be higher. Hoya will back it up. 4. DSLR offers higher margins and Hoya will continue and strengthen thye business of DSLR and lenses. So, sounds like the sky is not falling after all, and Pentax seem to have succeeded to obtain Hoya's understanding and support to continue and strengthen their camera business. Re FF DSLR, there is no more significant "rumours" except that the launching of FF DSLR became more plausible because of Hoya's position above. Pentax somehow developing their own CMOS is still a strong rumour base, although I personally doubt it. But you never know, now that Pentax no longer is "allowed" to play in the congested (and bloody competitive) entry level market. And CMOS is much easier to make compared with CCD which requires large investment. Any semiconductor plant, which is abundant everywhere can be converted to CMOS plant. All in all, it's a good news and Pentax is probably preparing something for the near future, now that Hoya has formally announced the merger. Cheers, Ken -- Thibault Massart aka Thibouille ---------------------- K10D,Z1,SuperA,KX,MX, P30t and KR-10x ;) ... -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
