[mecrox]

Whoops apocalypse. Awful uncertainty for the camera division's staff. I hope Ricoh make an announcement before very long and set out the position (which is what Panasonic did when the news of their reorganisation got out recently). Otherwise the rumours swirl around, retailers step back and people just stop buying.

[Miguel]

Yes, this seems more reasonable. I suppose the pull back from K mount support simply 'helped' Pentax even more though..

About the best working definition of marginalization I know.

M

[boriscleto]

So a story comes out about Ricoh scaling back consumer cameras and Pentax is Dooomed™.

What exactly are they going to do but get rid of money losers like the GR, WG and Q?

[ffking]

The trouble is that without clarification about commitment to Pentax, nobody is going to invest in the system and it's goodbye Pentax anyway - they need to make that commitment publicly.

[mee]

Yes but the sky isn't exactly falling just yet.

I think this article is just stating Ricoh is determining what they'll do to remain (become?) profitable in the upcoming year. Nikon had their big restructuring announcement. Toshiba just announced it may fold.. entirely. It seems to me the GR, Q, and WGs will go for sure. K mount may or may not just yet... going to be an interesting year.

Might not be year of the primes. Might be year of the primes (in another camera system).

[Rondec]

Hard to say what this means, but my guess is that Boris is close to right on. Get rid of lower priced and poor selling stuff and focus on areas of strength. Which is probably the K mount and maybe the 645z.

[tvdtvdtvd]

Wow, that is a punch to the sternum. Yes, it is a shrinking market but there's no denying that the K-3, K-1 and KP have turned heads and
non-Pentax shooters are discussing Pentax as a serious camera brand for the first time in well over a decade. I think it would be folly to
completely abandon all their hard work overnight. Ricoh were very wise to abandon compact camera production when they did. Question
now stands, what would be the most sensible position to continue to hold, should they desire? FF, APS-C, MF, Theta, GR?, (Q is a safe bet
for abandoned already).

This little snippet may be the silver lining in the announcement:
"The company plans to use spare capacity at compact-digital-camera factories in Vietnam and elsewhere to ramp up production of automotive products."
With any luck, the Pentax brand is not yet Doomed, and this announcement is simply a continuation away from compact cameras Ricoh abandoned
a few years ago.

[RobA_Oz]

The article also asserted that Canon and Nikon had maintained profitability with their camera lines, which makes me wonder about the accuracy or independence of the source.

[mee]

Wow, that is a punch to the sternum. Yes, it is a shrinking market but there's no denying that the K-3, K-1 and KP have turned heads and
non-Pentax shooters are discussing Pentax as a serious camera brand for the first time in well over a decade. I think it would be folly to
completely abandon all their hard work overnight.

I think the folly is allowing articles such as this to be written before determining what they are going to do. It seems the author has some level of inside knowledge..

Now newcomers considering Pentax might be super leery of the brand.. which could make it more difficult for them to sell new cameras.

[HopelessTogger]

Oh noes!

Back to adapted mirrorless if this is the case. Metabones AF K to E needed.

Ghastly!

[Adam]

Seems like speculation. The core business has tanked in the past year, so Ricoh will have to look to cut costs. How exactly they'll do it remains to be seen. The recent show at CP+ certainly painted a different picture of most of the camera division.

[mee]

Seems like speculation. The core business has tanked in the past year, so Ricoh will have to look to cut costs. How exactly they'll do it remains to be seen. The recent show at CP+ certainly painted a different picture of most of the camera division.

Yes I wonder why Ricoh would put more lenses on the roadmap (50, 85, and a new D-FA telephoto zoom) if they were soon to abandon it all?

[reh321]

This article is partly speculative.

The Japanese company will radically review a production and manufacturing strategy centered on cameras for the retail market.

Ricoh will also rethink the sales strategy for its mainstay office equipment

and partly the sort of thing that everyone except management anticipates from the moment a merger is announced

The company plans to use spare capacity at compact-digital-camera factories in Vietnam and elsewhere to ramp up production of automotive products.

In America, Ricoh is laying off 1,000 workers as it restructures its sales network to reduce overlap

[HopelessTogger]

Yes I wonder why Ricoh would put more lenses on the roadmap (50, 85, and a new D-FA telephoto zoom) if they were soon to abandon it all?

Recently I watched a recycling division of a large paper company spend £500k on a site only to close it weeks later.

[reh321]

Yes I wonder why Ricoh would put more lenses on the roadmap (50, 85, and a new D-FA telephoto zoom) if they were soon to abandon it all?

It gave work to employees who otherwise would be wondering about their own futures??