[falconeye]

Pentax Q falls on 47th place on BNC camera ranking...

BNC rankingdoesn't work well after the first ten places or so. Because of fragmentation when counting every bundling offer separately and because of poll size.

Recent market analysis see Pentax anywhere between 1.5% and 3.5% of the system camera market. It used to be 5-6% in one camp with Olympus and Sony but isn't anymore after Hoya ran their "invest as much as necessary only" strategy while Sony (SLT/NEX) and Olympus (µFT) decided to innovate.

Personally, I see Pentax at ~7% the size of Nikon or ~2.5% of the system camera market overall. The critical mass probably is closer to 5%.

[Christine Tham]

Strange evolution in one week time.
Are the retailers'shelves full, waiting for customers to buy it ?

I wouldn't really place a lot of emphasis on rankings. They are based on the larger consumer oriented stores.

I've been to quite a few of these stores, and they generally push a few select models by giving them very prominent floor space, and other cameras get relegated to behind glass cabinets.

So the popular model(s) for the week tends to be either (1) a new model, (2) a heavily discounted clearance model, or (3) a "popular" choice (a low end Canon or Nikon with a kit lens).

There's actually a lot of resistance from sales staff if you want to buy a "non popular" model (ie. behind the glass cabinet) because they have to do more work. They will try and steer you towards one that's on the open testing area.

In Japan, I would prefer to go to a specialist store (usually tucked away in a little corner, or upstairs in a multi storey building) - they have lower prices, and a much better range (including second hand lenses - drool) and better service. But don't expect a lot of English spoken in these stores (actually, the large stores aren't great either ...)

[zxaar]

In Japan, I would prefer to go to a specialist store (usually tucked away in a little corner, or upstairs in a multi storey building) - they have lower prices, and a much better range (including second hand lenses - drool) and better service. But don't expect a lot of English spoken in these stores (actually, the large stores aren't great either ...)

This is very true. Just in front of yodobashi umeda there is a shop called camera naniwa. I have been going to yodobashi for last 6 years but never noticed it. But once I noticed it and went. That day I bought k-x for my bro for 20000 yen plus pentax K 135 F3.5 lens for 2000yen (in mint condition). The average price here for that lens in reviews is roughly 100$. They have very good collection of lenses and camera bodies.

[Zygonyx]

Thanks for these interesting considerations.
I just hope Ricoh can reinforce Pentax's commercial network because this is the weakest point of their past strategy, and one that unfortunately did actually get worst with Hoya since 2008...

[angerdan]

I got some marketing paperwork about the Q at the show, it made for some pretty interesting reading actually. I'll see if I can scan it in tonight and show you, it explains a bit more about the decision making behind the Q if I remember correctly.

Would be nice to see the file http://download345.mediafire.com/e22hb580e0fg/n2g110hucuorre1/PentaxQ001.pdf from http://www.mediafire.com/?n2g110hucuorre1 again
Are you able to find and upload it on the forum?

[Mikesul]

Good luck Angerdan. NicoleAU has not been here for 4 years but you never know.