Well, regarding this exchange here:
---" Originally Posted by rparmar View Post
Would Pentax products be better if they were are popular as Canon? No, I think they'd be worse.---""
"Why do you think they'd be worse?
You seem to have a very optimistic view of current Pentax marketing. Not that that's a bad thing. However, others have a very different view. Personally I could care less whether they have TV ads, a ton of magazine ads, or whatever. The thing is, such presence would help expand the number of Pentax users. While popularity is not always the absolute best thing, having more customers would increase the ability of Pentax to release new products."
The fact here is that popularity is a fickle master, so to speak. If you have more *mass consumer appeal,* and have a huge business to support *based* on this, you a) have to continue to (increasingly) pander to that very consumer base, and b) Can incidentally start telling 'serious' photographers what we do and do not need for a given amount of money....
It's not like Canon and Nkon make bad products, or anything, they've just been missing the boat on making *anything* for people who can't write off a five thousand dollar camera every two years.
The 'popular' maket for celebrity-endorsed point-and-shoots that are like Iphones without the phone ....isn't actually going to help most of the Pentax DSLR crowd, here. I, for one, have little interest in them becoming a third player in that market. It's expensive, for one. They should certainly get their products out there, but I could care less how big they are as long as they stand to be around a while making what I need.