[aeiou]

Hello!
I am new here and I was reading all kinds of threads, but what cal my attention was that the release of a FF camera from Pentax is something important for North Americans Pentaxians. I also note that some members complain about the Pentax press releases being in Japonese.
My question for discution is: Is Pentax set to Japonese market and we get what would sell here too, like a "submarket"? or Pentax thinks globaly when researches for new products?
It looks that Pentax doesn't care about the needs or ambitions of North American Pentaxians. What the Japonese constumers want from Pentax? They too are urging for a FF?
I know that is hard for the biggest economy in the world things itself as a submarket but in the SLR market Japan is the biggest and maybe, for a "small" brand as Pentax, survive in the main market is what realy matter. The fact that Pentax doesn't operate in all markets and is clearly focused in the biggest markets only may show a mentality of a small company afraid of the big world.

[Peter Zack]

They have a much bigger share in the Japanese market without question. More fad like offerings (the 100 colours of the K-x for example) were geared to Japan. At first, so was the 645D.

I wouldn't say they aren't well aware of what WW, NA and EU want. It's a matter of size. Can they afford to have 4 formats, maybe 5* at a WW market share of 5-7%? IMO no. Just too much to try and support properly.

They aren't ignoring it, they just don't have the resources. Hoya has historically been very careful to control what's happening inside and that silence may cause some of you're assuming. But the Japanese have been smart enough to study their markets for decades and I'm sure they know what people want.

*P&S, APSc, MF, MILC, FF

[Winder]

Hello!
I am new here and I was reading all kinds of threads, but what cal my attention was that the release of a FF camera from Pentax is something important for North Americans Pentaxians. I also note that some members complain about the Pentax press releases being in Japonese.
My question for discution is: Is Pentax set to Japonese market and we get what would sell here too, like a "submarket"? or Pentax thinks globaly when researches for new products?
It looks that Pentax doesn't care about the needs or ambitions of North American Pentaxians. What the Japonese constumers want from Pentax? They too are urging for a FF?
I know that is hard for the biggest economy in the world things itself as a submarket but in the SLR market Japan is the biggest and maybe, for a "small" brand as Pentax, survive in the main market is what realy matter. The fact that Pentax doesn't operate in all markets and is clearly focused in the biggest markets only may show a mentality of a small company afraid of the big world.

Japan is the 3rd largest economy in the world (just passed by China this year), so playing to the Asian market is not a bad thing. The 2nd and 3rd largest economies in the world are good markets for Pentax. Small portable cameras for people with smaller hands sell very well. M4/3 has been a run away success netting 30% of the sales in Japan.

[deejjjaaaa]

Japan is the 3rd largest economy in the world (just passed by China this year), so playing to the Asian market is not a bad thing. The 2nd and 3rd largest economies in the world are good markets for Pentax.

that if you will not count EU as a single entity... othewise it will be EU #1, USA #2, China #3, Japan #4... and as a market to sell, EU I think might be considered as a single entity

[Winder]

that if you will not count EU as a single entity... othewise it will be EU #1, USA #2, China #3, Japan #4... and as a market to sell, EU I think might be considered as a single entity

The GDP for the Americans averages about 40% higher than it is for citizens of the EU. The unemployment rate is significantly less in the states which give Americans more purchasing power. Taxes are significantly less in the states which also give Americans more disposable income. American work longer, entering the workforce and an earlier age and retire later which also leads to more income over their lifetime. If all of the EU had the economies of Germany or France then the EU probably would be a larger economic entity than the U.S.A., but countries like Ireland, Greece, & Spain (to name a few)really drag the over all numbers. Then there is the issue of some of the VATs that some EU countries impose on imports which can be pretty extreme by American standards.

[philbaum]

Hello!
It looks that Pentax doesn't care about the needs or ambitions of North American Pentaxians. What the Japonese constumers want from Pentax? They too are urging for a FF?

To say that they don't care is very unlikely. They have limited assets and unlimited needs, like most other companies. I'm sure they sweat "bullets" over making the right decisons. One never has all other data that one would like in making business decisons.

You don't go from a company the size of Pentax to Nikon in one year, maybe 2 years are necessary :-)

[fikkser]

The GDP for the Americans averages about 40% higher than it is for citizens of the EU. The unemployment rate is significantly less in the states which give Americans more purchasing power. Taxes are significantly less in the states which also give Americans more disposable income. American work longer, entering the workforce and an earlier age and retire later which also leads to more income over their lifetime. If all of the EU had the economies of Germany or France then the EU probably would be a larger economic entity than the U.S.A., but countries like Ireland, Greece, & Spain (to name a few)really drag the over all numbers. Then there is the issue of some of the VATs that some EU countries impose on imports which can be pretty extreme by American standards.

I'm no expert in economy, but I don't think the purchasing power is less in the "rich" EU contries. Higher taxes means more equal income even for unemployed people. Someone living from student grant or social welfare (or what you call it) in Sweden could pretty easy afford a K-7, meaning anyone could get one if they wanted. I don't know, but I suspect that you have to work longer because you haven't got the same social securities as we got in EU because of our high taxes (meaning you save money for yourself when paying tax aswell). Normally you work from age 18 to 65 in Sweden atleast, but the higher age is increasing. (whatever this has to do with the subject, hehe)

[Rondec]

I think it is pretty normal for a company to be most interested in selling cameras in the country in which they are based and to look at secondary markets as exactly that -- secondary. I think that is the reason why Pentax went with the 645D as opposed to full frame. If they had been focused mainly on North America, they may have gone with full frame first, since it is a big seller here, but in hind sight, it was a market with minimal competition that was ripe for the picking. If they can grow the medium format segment of photography worldwide, they will be in really good shape as they sell against companies other than Panasonic/NIkon/Canon.

[pinholecam]

Whats new.
Every Japanese company is like that. So is every American, British, European, Korean company.

Using its base country as a strong anchor (often protected ) and then extending out has been practiced for a long time.

Then again, what works locally, should work in a foreign land, with a few local tweaks of course.

[Albert Siegel]

Japan is the 3rd largest economy in the world (just passed by China this year), so playing to the Asian market is not a bad thing. The 2nd and 3rd largest economies in the world are good markets for Pentax. Small portable cameras for people with smaller hands sell very well. M4/3 has been a run away success netting 30% of the sales in Japan.

Yes and no... China's GDP just passed Japan for the first time in the past weeks, but that really means nothing as personal wealth in China is still low. Gross GDP is not the best way to measure the wealth of a country. I also feel China's passing has a good deal to do with the currency rates which we all know what china does with theirs. In the end it's really just symbolic and means very little.

[illdefined]

if not for the Japan-focus, Pentax wouldn't be Pentax. Its why they make the smaller, affordable, weather resistant cameras and complete sets of small, high quality primes that we all love and the Japanese appreciate.

Canon and Nikon do focus on the N.American market and the results are huge cameras with obscenely large zoom lenses. Even their prime lenses are huge in comparison.

[older not wiser]

At the end of the day Hoya and the Pentax brand name are very Japanese. In the Japanese domestic market the consumer replaces their goods more often then they do in other markets. If Pentax is going to survive they cannot abandon the home customer, who were the people who made them in the first place.
In the UK now Pentax is considered to be a niche market company and when I have visited other EU countries it seems to be the same. The money Hoya would have to spend to get Pentax to have the same share of the world market as they have in Japan would break the company. So I think this slow development to get market share back in the rest of the world is probably the best course of action.

[Uluru]

Smart companies today are not after the market share. It's the old economic paradigm that has zero value in today's world permeated with information networks everywhere. But user vulgaris and economically uninitiated still believe that's what counts.
Smart companies are about the uniqueness of their offer and vision, and maximising profit. Market share race in today's economy is always a race to the bottom and if a smaller company is to join it, it will surely die. See for example Apple and their competitors; all their competitors -- say Nokia, Acer, Dell, HP, Microsoft, etc. are all obsessed with market share, but Apple beats them all in everything else. They have passed even Microsoft with the market cap, but never joined and always avoided the market share game because it's a certain way to exhaustion.

[deejjjaaaa]

Taxes are significantly less in the states which also give Americans more disposable income.

which average american will spend on what average european will get through their system for free.

but countries like Ireland, Greece, & Spain (to name a few)really drag the over all numbers.

well, then I need to drive a little bit further into Appalachia here and PIGS will be like a paradise in comparison.

[stanleyk]

which average american will spend on what average european will get through their system for free.





well, then I need to drive a little bit further into Appalachia here and PIGS will be like a paradise in comparison.

Or you could just join me here in rural Texas. It's like a third world country. I've never seen anything like it in Europe, but then again I've never been to Albania. GDP is a gross figure, what I would look at is income disparity between say really great "innovators and entrepreneurs" like Ken Lewis or Alan Fuld who did so much for our economy with their +$50 million paychecks and say the people who live a few blocks from me. Nice government hating white folks with plywood on their windows. To even attempt to compare Germany, France, Denmark, ect with American is a joke. If you don't think so let me take you to Mississippi where my family is originally from.