Originally posted by luftfluss The thing is, we don't actually know what Pentax's standing in Ricoh's "Smart Vision" division is; it is possible that Pentax is in the red, Theta and GR and whatever else keeping things in the black.
What's wrong with that - cameras that sell? You might say, 'But I don't want a street camera or a 360 degree camera'. But the point is, other people did.
The result is what Ricoh did last year with the Smartvision portfolio is what the other manufacturers have been unable to do - actually make more money. Boards respect that.
Take Olympus, for example.
According to Mistral75's figures, they sell twice as many cameras as Ricoh, and they're completely mirrorless.
But the result? A $150 million dollar loss in twelve months. Let's put that disaster into context. All of Pentax, its employees in Japan, its factories in Vietnam and the Philippines, its IP, was bought for $120 million.
So, which company has been smarter?
And in the case of Canon and Nikon, their revenues have dropped even further since they moved to their new mirrorless platforms. The Canon guy admitted they did not result in a growth in the market or even an arrest in the decline, instead he found each mirrorless sold just subtracted one from their own DSLR sales. That's the worst possible result. And if Canon cannot serve both R and EF mount users (they've basically abandoned EF lens development, for example), how will smaller Nikon and Pentax handle two mounts?