Originally posted by atomiccow If you were the Pentax CEO... you'd be fired.
If you were a Pentax shareholder... you'd be throwing away your money.
And if you are a Pentax customer and if Pentax did operate like this... they wouldn't be providing you with products much longer.
The market for cameras is only so big. Pentax owns some of it. From that bit of it, they can make so much money in so much time. With that money, they can make new things like new and better lenses and cameras. Canon and Nikon own more of this market than Pentax does. As such, they make more money in less time. With that money they can make better lenses and better cameras faster than Pentax can. If you value Pentax as a company, you should hope that they want to attract new customers.
Talk about trying to fight all fights.
People are bitching all about K-5, but I don't hear anyone bitching about, for instance, K-x or K-r. Because those are very competitive products on their lines compared to the other brands, if not the best cost/benefit considering the entire system.
What I'm saying is that everybody is obsessed about
converting CaNikon customers, when it's not really the point. There are
new users acquiring DSLRs everyday, and products like the K-x and K-r make it more accessible.
If I were a shareholder, I would prefer PENTAX to keep the strategy of accessible DSLRs and tough bodies with sensible improvements instead of releasing some high-spec'd ass camera just to win reviews against CaNikon.
Specially because Nikon and Canon have deep pockets and can
underprice just to flood models and maintain market share. You can't win against someone selling at close to zero profit - which they
can do with high-end models just to maintain brand value, and sell where the meat is, low-medium tier.
When you're a small company, your strategy has to be smart, fast-moving, finding the unexplored markets you can squeeze in (entry-level, medium format). Trying to fight all fights makes you lose all.
What PENTAX can and should do, in my opinion, is raise brand awareness, that from what I can read in the forums, is extremely low in USA - inside Europe looks like it's better in this regard. In Japan, they raised to a 10% market share this year, which is great considering their size. Apple owns ~6.5% worldwide, but doesn't mean they don't turn a profit or don't make high quality products. Market share alone says nothing about a company. Think about it.