Originally posted by Black_Wizards It seems to me too that the focus should be the FF so why releasing an new "high end" APSC now?
Because FF is only 10% of the market? APS-C is still the bread and butter. Even most of the FF advocates will admit the main reason Pentax needed a FF was so they could say they had one and offer a, never used, imaginary upgrade path. 90% of buyers are still going to go APS-C but they will now have the comfort of having that safety net of a Pentax FF if they ever want to "go pro".
Releasing an APS-C flagship now is smart. The competition just did which tends to make the k-3 look dated (even if it is still holding it's own). They announced the FF to reassure those that might hold back on a Pentax buy because of the "no upgrade path" thing. Then they let rumors about the price of the FF stir about for a while. Then they release a new k-3II with category leading specs at a competitive price. Lot's of fence sitters will go for it. They really did not want a $2,500 FF camera anyway so now they can get the "almost as good" $1,200 k-3II. And of course they can upgrade to FF next year if it looks good.
Of course since Ricoh has no idea what they are doing that is just random speculation........................