Originally posted by Emacs Why to produce obsolete stuff?
It's Pentax advantage of not having large DSLR userbase: they can drop current userbase and switch to modern technology. Or even better: switch to mirrorless + K-mount AF adaptor for the current userbase.
Both Nikon and Canon are being held by their huge userbase and just can't make such a turn.
BTW, the mirrorless market is not so busy as it seems. Olympus, Panasonic and Samsung were strangled themselves by limiting their sensors by mounts design (4/3, 4/3 and APS-C respectively). It's time to make sensors larger than APS-C being a new mainstream. Short flange distance helps to produce compact lenses for compact mirrorless bodies. The advertisements should point on this difference, promising the superior image quality over the oli-pana-sams mirrorless and mainstream DSLRs
DSLR's are still pretty modern. They account for the huge surge in photographic popularity in the last few years. People are wowed by the IQ and the lower and lower prices, so the market has been all about value. Even the kit lenses now produce excellent results for average shooting situations. Small as Pentax is, it still has a large user base for this product line.
I don't see the K-mount DSLR going away. Sales volumes will decline with another mirrorless mount, but may still stay healthy enough to continue. In fact, I predict they will for quite some time. This is sunk cost tech with very high rates of return. Also, the OVF with prism is a pro piece of equipment and advanced tech in its own right. The OVF has no latency and 100% DR. Hard to beat as Leica knows.
Pentax (like Sony) wants you to buy 2 (or more) systems from them (think the Q). The whole idea that a single camera body will do all things with all lenses is a fallacy. It makes no design sense nor market sense. I also don't think the whole support structure for multiple mounts is as much of a barrier as it used to be. The market is fracturing and that's good for consumer choice. DSLR may go higher-end, but guess what? Maybe the pentamirror goes away and we get a uniquitous pentaprism. Bonus!