Originally posted by Aristophanes And Pentax has it under their DSLR line:
PentaxWebstore - Digital SLR Cameras
The channel has spoken. Pentax marketing can blah blah blah about "new category", but it's being lumped in already. It requires a much more attractive street price.
Pentax USA that is.
Pentax Europe put it into a new category (Digital Mirrorless) alongside P&S, bridge and dSLR.
It's clear Pentax tries to make the Q compete against µFT. And given the poor ISO and DR performance of recent Olympus sensors compared to Sony, they actually may succeed.
However, the real competitors will be enthusiast compacts (like the LX5 or S95). The LX5 almost matches the noise characteristics of the much bigger Olympus FT cameras (same grey noise according to DPR) and the real mirrorless competitors for Pentax will be Sony and forthcoming mirrorless APS-Cs.
Pentax seems to have come up with the same analysis and made both their teams (P&S and dSLR) develop mirrorless, the Q and NC-1, respectively.
The Q is going to compete against µFT (but being a compact, it's price will have to go down to compete against LX5 and alike or it will eventually fail).
The NC-1 is going to compete against NEX and alike and will feature K-mount lens compatibility (most likely via an adapter and most likely APS-C).
I said this all in January in a thread which has grown rather big,
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-news-rumors/129409-forthcoming-pen...ss-camera.html
That was about the NC-1, not Q which I didn't anticipate at that time. Which would be another sign that the Q was developed in parallel by the P&S team.
I think the NC-1 was delayed by the earthquake and Q launch. So, if not spring, autumn will be the next likely release date.