Originally posted by monochrome Which of those hardware items (aside from the cars, that Google most decidedly did not manufacture) is not Motorola? (Which my tend to support my point about Ricoh growing by acquisition.
The LG, Asus, HTC, Samsung ones, I'd guess?
I don't think Pentax Ricoh can grow much by M&A; acquiring any major company (let's suppose for a moment that Olympus would have to sell their camera division) would only generate internal competition, much more than e.g. acquiring Gestetner. The added value, if any, would make it not worth the effort.
Maybe small, localized acquisitions would still be worthwhile; e.g. some software company specialized in firmware/image processing, small makers with interesting patents etc. But I think the growth will be largely due to Pentax Ricoh's own efforts.
About Pentax becoming #3 in ~5 years or not, I'd guess it depends on how do we count. If compacts are included, and if we're counting volume instead of value it would be very difficult. If we're talking about DSLRs, should be quite easy to achieve. Anything in between it's up to debate...
By the way, as a programmer I have to say software is a real product, the most complex humankind had ever designed, even though it's not hardware
OTOH, unlike cameras the software industry allows one company to grow very fast - from nothing to an important player. There's no "Google" of the camera market.