[RiceHigh]

oh yeah ---- as soon as I get back into the Pentax system here comes the bad news from the bean counters

here is the link ----- just remember that corporations like to chop heads and not necessarily products

Hoya Sales, Profit Fall on Photo Masks, Pentax Unit -- Tech-On!

kman

But their own report says that they are going to chop products!

[ghelary]

From now, the company will attempt to expand its business through entering the SLR camera lens market, which it has been holding back from entering as it believes margins are lower than for compact cameras lenses. It will also increase marketing of optical pickup lenses for Blu-ray Disc drives, for which demand is expected to strengthen.

Digital camera business to be downsized

Concerning the digital camera business operated by Pentax, Hoya said it will aim to secure its profit by reducing the business scale from now on. Amid the market environment, where the price competition intensified and sales growth of SLR products slowed, financial results of Pentax also plunged with unit sales decreasing and unit price lowering in the April-June quarter.

A sales decline of about 20% is anticipated to continue in the July-September quarter, as the business unit is building up inventory, lagging behind its rivals and market demand when releasing products, according to Hoya. The company is planning to cut costs by streamlining its bases in Japan by shifting production overseas and outsourcing, as well as reducing production to an appropriate level from now, it said.

I don't think we have read the same text, I read that Hoya is planning to invest in SLR and reorganize Pentax in order to cut costs.

On general perspective, reorganization, delocalisation and outsourcing are common practices, inlcuding in healthy companies.

It also known that the camera market is slowly shifting toward SLR, price cut in P&S models are not compensated anymore by volumes, competition is moving toward SLR where the value per unit is much higher.

It would be no surprise for Hoya to make Pentax stop development or even give up on P&S where its position is weak to focus on SLR where its postion is much stronger.

[Pål Jensen]

But their own report says that they are going to chop products!

But this is very old news regarding P&S business which are going to be further streamlined and outsourced.
There will be an increase in the DSLR and lens business....

[Ray Pulley]

To be fair, the K20D was released well ahead of schedule, and the K200D right about on time. I doubt many potential first-time Pentax buyers were put off that the 55mm F1.4 and 60-250mm F4 have been behind schedule.

As I recall, the K20D was just a bit late after the announcement, but certainly nothing to argue over.

The lens introductions have not only been very late, but too many problems remained in the products at the time of release. It has certainly been too long since the announcement of the 17-70 to general availability, although so far, there are no reports of quality issues. It could be too early to tell, however, as few have this lens at this point.

As for the 60-250 f4, I see posts here and elsewhere wondering where this lens is, and have seen complaints for several years about the lack of a longer zoom in this range.

They will really need to step up and get the major products done more quickly in the future.

Once you have a reasonably full lineup of bodies and lenses, the release of new stuff is not quite as critical IMO.

For Pentax, this means (IMO):

Bodies -

A new entry level body (hopefully smallish)

A new top line body (hopefully with a new faster AF system and predictive AF and a higher flash sync speed, with a better auto metering system being secondary)

Lenses -

60-250 f4

Remainder of roadmap

True ring motor HSM at least in the top of the line zooms.

Maybe then they can turn their attention to the flash offerings as they need a PTTL ring flash and a redesign to PTTLII with much less delay between pre-flash and main flash, not to mention better and more consistent flash metering.

Just my $.02

Ray

[regken]

I don't think we have read the same text, I read that Hoya is planning to invest in SLR and reorganize Pentax in order to cut costs.

On general perspective, reorganization, delocalisation and outsourcing are common practices, inlcuding in healthy companies.

It also known that the camera market is slowly shifting toward SLR, price cut in P&S models are not compensated anymore by volumes, competition is moving toward SLR where the value per unit is much higher.

It would be no surprise for Hoya to make Pentax stop development or even give up on P&S where its position is weak to focus on SLR where its postion is much stronger.

"From now, the company will attempt to expand its business through entering the SLR camera lens market, which it has been holding back from entering as it believes margins are lower than for compact cameras lenses"

It is funny how we all read these company statement differently. Of course many times they are written with the intent of misleading us or allowing them to swing in a different direction if needed.

You read the statement and come to the conclusion Hoya is going to invest in Pentax SLR. I read it and think Hoya intends to either develop their own line of lenses like Tamron and sell lenses for all brands or sell more glass to all lens manufacturers.

Nowhere do I see where they say they intend to invest in Pentax. It seems to me it might be more profitable for Hoya to sell all of Pentax except for the new lens facility in Vietnam and turn that factory into a Tamron type operation and make lenses for all brands.

[Groucho]

As I recall, the K20D was just a bit late after the announcement, but certainly nothing to argue over.

The lens introductions have not only been very late, but too many problems remained in the products at the time of release. It has certainly been too long since the announcement of the 17-70 to general availability, although so far, there are no reports of quality issues. It could be too early to tell, however, as few have this lens at this point.

As for the 60-250 f4, I see posts here and elsewhere wondering where this lens is, and have seen complaints for several years about the lack of a longer zoom in this range.

They will really need to step up and get the major products done more quickly in the future.

You're changing your accusation here. First you said that people weren't buying Pentax because they've been delaying things. Now you're saying that the 17-70mm is keeping people from buying? And I must have missed the stories of iffy quality on recently-released things. The closest would be stories of inconsistent 16-50mm DA*s.

Anyway, the K20D was not late at all, it was early. I had it pre-ordered, the initial word was that the K200D would be out in, IIRC, March, with the K20D in April. I remember this as I had a trip in April and hoped that I'd be able to get the K20D in time. Meanwhile, the K200D did come out in March and the K20D in February. Even if my dates are slightly off and the K20D was officially announced for March, it was still available ahead of schedule, and before the K200D.

It seems to me that the key products for selling to first-time DSLR buyers are the DSLRs - on time or early - and consumer-friendly lenses like the 18-250mm and 55-300mm, which were available on time.

I don't mind hearing Pentax trashed for things they really did (or do) wrong, but with the exception of some high-end lenses (and MF body), they've been doing pretty well lately.

That being said - I hope they hurry up and get that 60-250mm out!