[Pål Jensen]

Cameras in this price range is not something one usually buys as christmas presents. I believe the spring and summer seasons are high seasons for camera and lens purchase...

[jatrax]

Cameras in this price range is not something one usually buys as christmas presents. I believe the spring and summer seasons are high seasons for camera and lens purchase...

Perhaps. But it depends on the buyer. Some people buy as they need regardless of price. Some buy only when it is on sale. Some buy when they get a small windfall, like Christmas bonus or tax refund. Maybe people would not buy a camera in this range for someone else but they might buy it for themselves. My wife always asks what I want to buy for myself for Christmas


No matter the reason fourth quarter is the largest sales time period for consumer goods.

[kwb]

Japan has adopted many U.S. business practices in recent years.
I would want to hear from a Japanese resident before believing that "Black Friday" does not have a business significance there.

There are some businesses that adopted it but they are a minority. My parents in Tokyo didn't know what Black Friday was when Amazon started Black Friday sale in Japan last year (but since Amazon did it, I expect more online retailers will do it this year).
We don't observe Thanksgiving in Japan so it's hard to remember the date. For that matter I don't remember/know if Japanese retailers were doing it on the same day as American retailers.

[reh321]

Cameras in this price range is not something one usually buys as christmas presents. I believe the spring and summer seasons are high seasons for camera and lens purchase...

The question is not that people might buy it as a Christmas present.
The question is that its introduction might lose to all the "noise" around Black Friday.

[rawr]

Just in time Christmas discount sales?

But if they are not on the shelves by mid-October they miss out on Christmas sales.

The Christmas selling season this Covid-19 year will be more difficult than ever before. Household budgets around the world are under pressure, retail is half-dead, and industry supply chains are under stress. Plus the market is awash with new camera gear as the current major players introduce new mirrorless lines and try to dump DSLR inventory. Tough time to sell anything.

To cut through the fog, Ricoh will have to work hard with the K-new. We've had a slow trickle of info for about a year now, but as we approach the third quarter of 2020, the K-new needs to move out of the shadows asap.

[reh321]

The Christmas selling season this Covid-19 year will be more difficult than ever before. Household budgets around the world are under pressure, retail is half-dead, and industry supply chains are under stress. Plus the market is awash with new camera gear as the current major players introduce new mirrorless lines and try to dump DSLR inventory. Tough time to sell anything.

To cut through the fog, Ricoh will have to work hard with the K-new. We've had a slow trickle of info for about a year now, but as we approach the third quarter of 2020, the K-new needs to move out of the shadows asap.

You have just provided a bunch of arguments for not introducing yet another new camera now.

People will have a tough time finding any more discretionary dollars.

[rawr]

You have just provided a bunch of arguments for not introducing yet another new camera now.

I know.

But we know Ricoh already had 'something in the oven' ready to launch in early 2020 CP+ Yokohama. Probably a whole chain of internal processes and resource investments had already begun, plus public statements were made. So I guess at some point, even after CP+ was abandoned, not launching the K-new in 2020 became difficult for Ricoh.

[jatrax]

Household budgets around the world are under pressure, retail is half-dead

This is more mixed than might be thought at first glance. In many segments the economy is simply booming.

The company I work for just finished year end. We have customers who are up 40% and others who are down 40%, depending on how they have dealt with COVID and whether local conditions allowed them to be open. Those who are down are badly hurting, those that are up are having the best year in their history.

The stock market is generally doing well but with far more big winners and big losers than usual. All good for brokers if not for the losers, brokers call that volatility which sounds bad but is very, very good for brokers.

People did not travel or vacation this year so those that are working have more spendable income than usual.

Tractors and agricultural equipment sales are through the roof. My local dealer has had his best year ever and has orders for 25 tractors pending.

My local appliance dealer is also having a banner year, sales are limited only by supply. 2 month wait for freezers.

I have a friend who is a home builder, in 2019 they had 3 jobs, about average for them. Right now they have 9 projects on the board and are struggling to find more employees.

Many people are now working from home. My son is one. Instead of a one hour drive to work, with gas and related expenses he is home. Working the same hours but his cost to get to work is now zero. That is money in his pocket.


I cannot remember a time when things were at such extremes, those that have had their jobs impacted are in serious trouble. Entertainment, restaurants, travel. But other segments of the economy are doing very, very well. To me that means (for some) there is available money and maybe a new camera is a good place to spend it.

[rawr]

This is more mixed than might be thought at first glance. In many segments the economy is simply booming.

True. Varies a lot by country, region, sector. Some places have strict lock downs, others not, some places face record GDP plunge, un-employment & household debt, but meanwhile the cost of money has never been lower. Some places face huge corona infection rates, others not. Plus elections, trade wars, political instability around the place.

I imagine looking at the situation from Ricoh HQ, it must be incredibly difficult to plot a course for the K-new (and other new investments).

[jatrax]

I imagine looking at the situation from Ricoh HQ, it must be incredibly difficult to plot a course

Difficult for anyone to plot a course. What does next year bring? We have customers 40% up, do they budget for that next year? No one knows. Uncertainty reins. In all of this turmoil Ricoh has to figure out the best path for Pentax and K-new. I am glad that is not my responsibility.

[BROO]

In all of this turmoil Ricoh has to figure out the best path for Pentax and K-new. I am glad that is not my responsibility.

Release it when it is ready would be the best thing to do. No point trying to predict the future. I still hope to see an announcement this month with shipping in November.

[JPT]

I believe the date we are looking at for availability is late November. Working back from that, Ricoh usually announces products and lifts the embargo on information 3-4 weeks before the on-sale date, so that would be the end of October. There are cases where Ricoh has shown specs before that, but it was influenced by the need to have something to exhibit at a show (GR III and K-1 are examples).

The reason I think late November is the on-sale date is that the new USB battery charger, which is almost certainly designed for the K-new, was pre-announced with "late November" availability. I think that's a big hint. Also, one of the few bits of information Ricoh has clearly stated about the camera is availability in 2020. There has been no correction on that, and Ricoh is still releasing teaser articles about it, so I think it's still on track.

Like kwb said, Black Friday is not really a thing in Japan. In the context of Japan and most other countries, it's just another forced retail "event" that retailers like Amazon are trying to import. Anyway, I think even in America the camera companies seem to use Black Friday as a chance to shift discounted old stock, not to launch new products. But if I'm right we should at least know what the K-new is by then, so people will be able to judge whether they want that or whether to go for a discounted KP or K-1 II.

I agree with jatrax that COVID-19 is not necessarily going to be a bad thing for sales of this camera. Some people's income has been hit hard. In Japan those who have lost their jobs are mostly young part-time workers, who are probably not the main target for a DSLR anyway. Most people have retained their jobs and are just not able to spend anything. On top of this, the government gave all Japanese residents a no-strings-attached 100,000 yen in stimulus money this summer. I think there are a lot of people who will be able to identify $2,000 of cash they haven't spent because of COVID.

Of course, each country's situation is different because the severity of the outbreak, labour laws and so on, but I think the same situation exists in most places. When there is some kind of solution to COVID and the public mood changes to being confident about going out again, people will start buying cameras with the money they've involuntarily been hoarding. At that time Ricoh should have a very compelling camera on the market. However, in the meantime there is really no reason why they must release information this month rather than next.

[Zygonyx]

One or two more month to discuss "why this DSLR has no swivel-sceen" sounds just unreasonable to me

[thibs]

One or two more month to discuss "why this DSLR has no swivel-sceen" sounds just unreasonable to me

Hahaha, totally agree.

[gaweidert]

Not sure when the new camera is available, but I am sure that no company wants to sit on inventory waiting for the "right time" to release it. In the current environment, all traditional business models are out the window. When the camera is in stock they will sell it. It will get lots of press simply because the industry watchers are starving for any news at all.


I am sure that Ricoh is having issues getting components just like everybody else. Right now in the US if your refrigerator breaks down, getting a replacement may take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months in some areas.