Originally posted by Aristophanes The current custom colour system is done by retailers who log in using an ID. The customer's choice is then UPS'd to the retailer. Returns are borne by Pentax.
What could be customizable?
Colours
Top LCD
Articulating rear LCD
Touch screen rear LCD
Sensor
Manual switch configurations
WR
A base body type could be selected first and maybe even a mirrorless option with an EVF. BTO creates all sorts of options.
I don't think BTO does, at least with cameras. Of the things on your list, the only thing which is sensibly customizable is the colour. Everything else can be covered by instead by purchasing cameras A or C in the range rather than camera B. A touch screen (or not) is integral to the camera's operating system and you really don't want to mess with that. WR is an important premium selling point, especially for Pentax. Breaking it up into customizable parts devalues that and may well mean that it is harder to upsell customers to your better, higher-priced products (K500 -> K50, etc.). As for sensors, the only thing to customize really is AA filter or not. A bigger sensor means a different model of camera with different electronics inside it.
Think what setting up a production facility like this would cost. Then add on the cost of huge, highly advertised front-end websites. You could probably also wave goodbye to a chunk of B&M business too, since some stores would consider an in-house BTO operation most unwelcome competition.
Ricoh bought Pentax for $125 million or so. It looks as if the product pipeline was empty so add on the same again for R&D and generally getting the outfit going again. Now throw a few hundred million or so for a completely new factory, distribution system, complete redesign of all products to allow parts to be modular and so capable of BTO assembly, and then add the front-end BTO operation. Has anyone so far seen any indication that Ricoh is prepared to spend a tenth of such a sum on Pentax? It would make perfect sense to do many of these things behind the scenes, in the sense of investing in modern design, assembly and distribution systems but to make it BTO for the customer is a vastly different and much more costly thing. Pentax is a very, very small outfit. They need a few products selling in the shops. They need a few people who know who they are. Walk before you can run.