[oxidized]

I didn't intend to make it seem like a moking comment towards your post. More towards pentax's approach on marketing and their users. If I was really an instant gratification kind of a person though I would have jumped ship long ago. All I'm asking is for them to give me SOME info to keep me as a customer. If nothing changes and they make no announcement, I believe next christmas I'm buying myself either a sony or selling all my gear and moving to nikon (like many others have already done)

[H. Sapiens]

Ok. I am in the "what a waste" camp. It was a waste of my time and a waste of an opportunity for Ricoh to easily and freely communicate to a listening audience.

I have spent the better part of my professional life in a communication department and even though it is of a ministry dealing with touchy subjects, we don't even come close to Ricoh's level of secrecy. Naturally, I do have a larger than normal interest in how organizations use various web platforms to communicate and I don't think I can come up with any company doing a poorer job than Ricoh (formerly known as Pentax). At least their communication across these platforms is consistent...

As an example I am currently considering buying an action camera. Now, try to look at Ricoh vs. GoPro on FB and see the difference - the closest we can come a score is GoPro wins 7.112.869 to 75.745. At the bottom line ten times more people have said: yes, keep me updated on what's going on with your products! Ricoh simply don't engage in promoting their product, except in old school buying a paper in a magazine once in a while. The video for K-3 was good (weird choice of subject, though, for what Ricoh consider a field camera) It is like they put a product on the market and then think now their work is fully done. So I am considering a wg camera - where is the video of some one taking that off skiing, snorkeling etc. Excite me and inform me in the process.

My comment here is a bit different than most as it concerns what they could do communicating about current products, which does not involve revealing which products are in the pipeline. It is not just about future plans Ricoh seem to prefer secrecy. I will claim they just don't seem interested in opening themselves up to how organizations communicate via various platforms to different audiences. When they occasionally do present something to this audience it is a one of expenditure (K-3 goes to the ballet ) not part of a unified strategy.

Edit: I just looked at the FB numbers again and it is of course 100:1 in favor of GoPro's. GoPro clearly have a strategy for how they use FB to reach customers, Ricoh don't.

[Daikokuya]

I just read Nikon interview on DPReview, and found it not different from Ricoh Imaging interview. It's boring.

[JPT]

So the issue is that they didn't randomly decide to pre-announce a product in an interview? They did pre-announce four products (645D2 and a lens for it, film duplicator, macro for Q) and showed a new K-mount roadmap, so in fact they did reveal a number of future products - just in a planned and organised way. They also actually released some compacts and a telconverter.

Sure, they could reveal a FF camera due in autumn, but how many K-3s would they sell in the meantime? Also, it would give their competitors more insight into their plans. Nikon could prepare a rehashed "D620" and announce it the same week to steal their thunder. And then what if they speak too soon, there are development problems and they have to push back the release?

Finally, criticising Kawauchi-san is not very kind. It's not a charisma contest. When I spoke to him at last year's CP+, he seemed like a helpful and genuine guy. In find it a bit strange to criticise his cultural awareness when this was an interview in Japan in Japanese, full of questions that a Japanese journalist would probably have had the tact not to ask (for the above reasons). I notice that Ricoh US does not do any interviews to deal with these questions, so poor old Kawauchi-san has to deal with them year after year. I wonder how many great past, present and future products he has been responsible for.

[Daikokuya]

Honestly, I don't think Nikon or Canon cares about Pentax. Pentax got out the K-3, which is called "Pentax's D400", but there has been nothing so far to imply that Nikon or Canon is rushed to announce an APS-C camera like the K-3. The silver K-3 model is still available though three months have passed since its release, meaning that the big two don't have to counter Pentax. It doesn't contradict to say that Pentax could do anything not to take Canon or Nikon into account.

[Uluru]

S
Finally, criticising Kawauchi-san is not very kind. It's not a charisma contest. When I spoke to him at last year's CP+, he seemed like a helpful and genuine guy...

No one is relating to Mr Kawauchi’s goodness as a person, but the general incapacity of RI’s staff to positively engage in conversation with their audience.

If the aim of an interviewee is to skip through the questions as quickly as possible, relate only most concise answers and not contribute with anything constructive to fill in communication gaps, then we have a bigger issue at hand.

And it is visible. It is a barrier. A rift. Ricoh Imaging does not know its western audience. And is quite sluggish in coming closer to them.

Starting from Jim Malcolm who, for example, dismissed FF questions right away with ridiculous statements some 14 months ago, to Mr Kawauchi himself, who refuses to talk just anything about it in this instance, there is a wide gap, filled with missed opportunities of building a bridge with better intent, better preparation, better strategy, better understanding and better outcomes. We are not talking about engineering an FF — we are talking about engineering some positive dialogue.

The only person that seems to recognise this issue is the chief of marketing, Mr Murano, who has recently joined RI (from Sony I believe). He did not need any extra question to start illustrating a story for his audience, and involve them into a picture that is more inviting and positive than what all these gentlemen could scrawl together in the last 3 years.

[mecrox]

Honestly, I don't think Nikon or Canon cares about Pentax. Pentax got out the K-3, which is called "Pentax's D400", but there has been nothing so far to imply that Nikon or Canon is rushed to announce an APS-C camera like the K-3. The silver K-3 model is still available though three months have passed since its release, meaning that the big two don't have to counter Pentax. It doesn't contradict to say that Pentax could do anything not to take Canon or Nikon into account.

If you're Canon or Nikon, Pentax is probably quite a good third player to have. They don't seem interested in becoming a behemoth or particularly serious competitor; they are essentially a "me too" player by virtue of producing DSLRs rather than MILCs; they are modestly represented in much of the world; and if a Pentax user wants to move up to FF they will likely move on or back to Canon or Nikon anyway. Sony, Olympus and Fuji pose more serious problems because they offer competing systems of a quite different kind, quite full ones too, and they put a great deal into sales and marketing all over the place. If a user decides they want small and mirrorless over a Canonikon DSLR, Canonikon have both lost a sale and the chances are higher the buyer won't come back.

[Daikokuya]

Sony, Olympus and Fuji pose more serious problems because they offer competing systems of a quite different kind, quite full ones too, and they put a great deal into sales and marketing all over the place. If a user decides they want small and mirrorless over a Canonikon DSLR, Canonikon have both lost a sale and the chances are higher the buyer won't come back.

The second most sold MILC in Japan last year is Canon's EOS M, and Nikon 1 also sold good in the domestic markets. MILC isn't popular overseas, especially in North America, which equally hurts not only Canikon but also Sony, Olympus, and Fuji. You might add Pentax to that list as well.

[fuent104]

Whether or not one agrees with the specific content, or lack thereof, in the interview, I will simply point this out: this interview was Ricoh's chance to speak directly, in their own words, to the single largest group of Pentax users (purchasers, enthusiasts) in the (native) English-speaking world.

Taking that fact in to consideration, I can't come to any conclusion other than "they simply do not care what we think," and that they see no value in building a relationship with us.

As long as this is the case, we will continue to see companies like GoPro go from nonexistence to market dominance in short periods of time, while Ricoh continues to study the possibilities of implementing new features into cameras.

By the way, Apple probably would have preorders for about 5 million Thetas if it were one of their products by now. How did those guys not figure out a way to talk about it? They treated this interview like an interrogation, in which they were guilty of the crime, and their goal was to say as little as possible. As opposed to treating it like an opportunity to promote their products, which it was.

[monochrome]

Starting from Jim Malcolm who, for example, dismissed FF questions right away with ridiculous statements some 14 months ago, to Mr Kawauchi himself, who refuses to talk just anything about it in this instance, there is a wide gap, filled with missed opportunities of building a bridge with better intent, better preparation, better strategy, better understanding and better outcomes.

Really? Seems to me JM said within the last ten months they're going to make a FF but not 'soon'. IOW, it will happen but don't hold your breath. Be patient. Other things must happen first.

That isn't ridiculous. It's the truth - but we won't accept the truth. We want the answer we want. Anything other than the answer we want is ridiculous. If I were a Ricoh Imaging executive I'd be tearing our my hair by now.

FWIW, I think (I know nothing) a FF camera is coming sooner than most people here think it will - and I think most people here will complain about something when it does.

[reeftool]

I just read the article on camera sales for the past year on DP. It doesn't paint a very promising picture for the future. Ricoh-Pentax wasn't mentioned but the numbers put out by Canon, Nikon, Olympus, and Fuji are scary. Ricoh isn't mentioned in the article but based on the industry overall, they probably didn't fare much better. The big headline of the article blames it all on the weak Yen. DSLR sales down 6% and mirroless sales down 22%. In the interview, they mention the declining market due to smartphone cameras. That's a little more realistic than blaming it on exchange rates. Nobody mentions market saturation. The market for digital cameras has flat lined as the majority of photo enthusiests have moved from film to digital, bought some lenses and are happily shooting pictures. I can fully understand the cautious approach Ricoh is taking towards a FF camera.

[Kunzite]

Afaik, Ricoh Imaging is (slowly) growing.

[rangercarp]

It will be interesting to see market share information from 2013. I assume it is not available yet? 2014 should be even more interesting. All indications point to Pentax making strides last year.

[Kunzite]

I only know of Japan/BCNRanking figures.

[Uluru]

I just read the article on camera sales for the past year on DP. It doesn't paint a very promising picture for the future. Ricoh-Pentax wasn't mentioned but the numbers put out by Canon, Nikon, Olympus, and Fuji are scary. ...

Read between the lines. The article is myopic, as is its author(s).

Moaning is based firstly on unrealistic projections of the largest camera makers, not on actual achieved numbers per se if taken into account everything else.

Situation for Olympus and Fuji is not so bad. Olympus fares better than in previous years as they are doing something what RI was doing during the last two years (restructure of production). Fujifilm has nothing to lose, only to gain, and as a new player in the field, they will not tell any numbers. I say, RI must beware of them.

Nikon and Canon and Sony do suffer but that is because of their a) size and b) unrealistic expectations to keep the earnings and level of sales as they were.

Smaller players have nothing to lose during storms. Leica grows. RI still makes profit. Fuji can only grow more.

But Nikon will shrink. And so will Canon.

Storms affects large trees with big trunks, but much smaller forest trees growing low see nothing of it, and are in fact quite protected.

RI could benefit greatly from this situations, if only they had better communications, and marketing department.