Originally posted by EchoOscar Again, this is not really anything unique or new. A number of 'eccentric' products within different industries have stirred quite a bit of controversy and even explicit noise in the circles for ages but, only a few of them have actually flopped. Some products have been much more successful and persistent, despite all the negative noise, online and off. Some are still running strong after a decade of being "misunderstood" by the press and the mainstream audience alike. So I still don't think you can blame the community alone for the demise of K-01. Besides, even some of the flops end up having a small but passionate bunch of followers, eventually, anyway, and so did K-01.
I'm honestly not happy about the demise of the K-01 but, I'm not surprised about it, either. Regardless of the talks in the forum. Surely there's no need to repeat the list of reasons once again. The positive thing is, there are still some stock left, so anyone wanting one can still get one.
I cannot help but wonder, if there's not a way that Pentax *could* keep a K-01bis somehow around, profitably - even if as a marginal product. I guess the balance would be that it'd have to be (i) not canibalizing the DSLR market, but either (ii) act as a gateway to it (I've got K-mount glass, might as well trade up to.....), or (iii) appeal to a different segment.
I'm just an engineer - which, by definition, implies that I know less than diddely-squat about marketing or economics - so take this with a generous spadeful of salt....but.....if I was to venture a guess, then it is that the way the Q and K-01 appeared and were "marketed" was too identically, shooting (in different ways) for (iii), and neither not really for (ii) in a meaningful way.
I come from the Olympus OM world....a LOT was made of "you do not buy a camera, you buy into a system" - that's why Olympus successfully were able to keep the OM10 around (by all measures, a mediocre camera, but students bought it in piles, then bought up to an OM20 or an OM2, typically, once getting a serious paycheck).
The K-01 is all-but a mediocre camera (have one, really loving it), but was really not in any meaningful way sold as being part of "the system".....K5/K30 (and their predecessors/successors) were. I think that the inability to use the same flashes in the same way (I still haven't wrapped my brain around the P-TTL vs. whatever-it-is), and different grips on the various K-bodies is doing a disservice to "system loyalty" etc.
As such, while I deplore it, I understand why Pentax has decided to let the K-01 be, and concentrate on the K30/K5 as their "big" and Q as their "small" systems.
I cannot but help that what Pentax needs is to think "system" and "medium-to-long-term" rather than "next quarter"....I know I know, I am just an engineer, and the financial world doesn't work with medium-term perspectives.....