This is a copy/paste of the last 2 entries on the "Demise of Pentax" thread from the other Pentax forum. I believe they answer ALL the questions and put to the outhouse the assertions so so assiduously reiterated by
.[. Z - over and over and over, (including the personal attacks).
If I didn't use Photo.net as my host I'd be gone already - as soon as I find a decent host I AM gone.
If you can stomach it, read the whole thread.
Rumor of Pentax's Demise - Photo.net Pentax Forum
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[. Z assertions:
"Pentax Q4 year-over-year growth: MINUS 15.5 percent"
"Pentax Q4 quarter over quarter growth: MINUS 24 percent"
"Annual growth rate: 1.7 percent"
"Compare to the other 2 divisions under the 'Pentax" brand.... Not good."
"The camera division effectively broke even, after crashing and burning in the most important selling quarter of the year. Not good."
REPLY #1:
Please read the financial statement more carefully. "Income statements of PENTAX were consolidated from the 3rd quarter ended Dec 31, 2007."
You are thinking Q4 is OCT-DEC. This is their Q3. They are on a different fiscal calendar. Q4 is JAN-MAR.
So, this should make a little more sense as the QTR after the big Christmas rush is not going to be all that hot. Plus people are holding off waiting for prices to drop after new products are released, etc. You combine this with the possibility of differing accounting methods pre- and post-merger, charge offs, etc, etc. It just goes to show that you can't prognosticate based upon one quarter.
Reply # 2:
"We have no intention to pursue a larger share in the general digital camera market"
Again this quoted out of context. General camera market means P&S. DSLR's is not the general camera market but a niche market. This was evident from the original articles. The shift away from P&S was not initiated by Hoya but decided upon years before the Hoya deal. The minus numbers quoted here is due to writing off old inventories and reduction of value of theP&S cameras. The DSLR's and lenses are doing fine and is what Hoya will concentrate on.
It can be found here:
http://www.hoya.co.jp/data/current/briefingsubobj-280-pdffile.pdf
Highlights:
Regarding SLR cameras, the sales of the interchangeable lens has grown significantly,and the camera (body) business itself has been successful. However, the unit shipment of compact cameras remains at the same level and the unit price is approximately down to 60% (the price is discounted by 40 ï¾– 50%) of the previous year.
We have liquidated the inventory of last yearï¾’s models, because we have been forced to sell them below cost.
We will not be able to stop compact camera business, but
we have been trying hard to shift resources to SLR camera business. While we were shifting the weight to the SLR camera, we could not maintain the other business properly. I regret that we did notaddress this earlier.
Although we have some profitable business lines such as the interchangeable lens for SLR and the endoscopes, we suffered a deficit in the 4Q
due to losses from compact cameras. In order not to repeat the mistake, we will stop in-house production of compact cameras and start ODM. We will try not to increase unit sales nor expand size unnecessarily.
Instead, we will allocate these resources to the SLR and the interchangeable lens.
Pentax DSLR and lens business ismand will be fine.