Originally posted by chrisjoy Look at the sales rankings on Amazon, the K01 is buried under a mountain of other cameras. In the "must have the latest and greatest gadget" economy, most electronics sell the biggest numbers right at launch. After production can catch up to sales most cameras sell at a relatively steady pace, outside of the holidays. Rebates are offered when sales slow a bit or when its about to be replaced - that or a company just unloads excess stock on a warehouse chain like Costco or Sam's Club.
Initial pre-order sales figures are a strong indicator of overall sales and long term success. I spent some time as a marketing manager for a major electronics distributor and experience tells me that the K01 will be a dud in the U.S., just like the Q. Amazon rankings are pretty telling since its one of the worlds largest seller of electronics. The Pentax marketing strategy is a mystery since its nowhere to be found in Wal-Mart and Best Buy in the U.S. and its getting no love on Amazon - for a camera company to be ignored by the three largest electronics retailers on the planet is not a good sign.
In the end the K01 offers nothing over Nex other than the lenses - which are slower focusing on the K01 than the K5, or over M43 which is much faster focusing, lighter and offers some spectacular lenses. Since most cameras are bought by casual shooters and aren't printing huge photos, the K01 is going to lose out because Pentax simply priced itself out of the entry market. This board is not enough to broaden the reach of Pentax, to attract new people to the brand it should have priced the K01 lower than Nex, M43 and the entry DSLR's from Canon and Nikon.
I really wanted a K5 to mate with my Zeiss lenses, but Pentax refusing to impliment manual controls on the video kept me away. I was hoping the K01 would be the answer, but I live in Florida and the lack of any kind of viewfinder or articulating LCD is appalling since the LCD is invisible in the sun, and its always sunny here. I'm getting a GH2 to pair with my 5d2 for video instead.
I don't want to undermine your position as a marketing manager, but so far it is not a real measure of having any real knowledge about the camera industry. consumer electronics sales in general can be easily be misunderstood. specific electronic niche markets gives different sales figures, same with market distribution centers or sellers as you might say. also consumer electronics goods follow a certain price category that vary in every department. not everything is the same nor priced the same.
you might not be aware of this but the K-5 and the 645D are the best camera products that came out of Pentax. best in the sense that it made a significant impact on the camera market. so you have been looking at the wrong stores to base your conclusion. point is, not everyone buys their camera at Walmart, BustBuy and Amazon. people buy directly at camera stores, and online camera stores/sellers. because if we are going to follow that, does that mean that medium format cameras are failure because Walmart or BUstBuy refuse to carry them?
sales figures for the K-01 is a wait and see til March where the numbers are really there. camera pre-orders are mostly cancelled along the way and you should know this. so those aren't of real value. again, avoid basing your conclusion at Walmart.
with regards to the K-01 pricing, it is just priced right along where it should be (entry level dslr), except that it is not dslr since it doesn't have a mirror for OVF. but the intention here is clear that the mirrorless concept is an introduction for big cameras that in the future would no longer need OVF. again, as I said, the K-01 has nothing to do with compact systems. it was never built to compete in that category but against entry level dslrs. it's an introductory concept in that market.
also, the GH2 cost around $1,200 when it was launched and some of the m4/3 cost around $900. so there is no compelling reason why the K-01's price should be anything lower than the NEX5n (the NEX-7 is expensive at $1,400). the NEX-5n is not a barometer for camera prices. it never was.