Originally posted by Art Vandelay II Why would they have already done it by now? Yes, I'm sure there are plenty of technical hurdles, but the simple fact is they'd much rather sell pros a 24mp camera this year, and a 40 megapixel again two years from now.
Technology itself isn't the issue. I'd guess Pentax knows all the math necessary to do precisely what you suggest, right now.
Planned obsolescence isn't the issue - that is the perspective of the buyer. From the perspective of the manufacturer, what you cal P.O., the semiconductor industry calls Moore's Law; and they are merely responding to market demand.
The issue is Cost of Capital and Return on Invested Capital. Hoya/Pentax is a business. Businesses make business decisions and take risks based on their determination of the most likely, highest return on the capital necessary to bring products to market and sell them.
Each potential product a company evaluates competes against all the others on a Risk/Reward basis, receiving an allocation of available capital for development and marketing until all available capital is exhausted, or until the risks to further capital deployment are not justified by potential return on capital.
I expect Hoya to continue to introduce surprises such as the K-7 and K-x, building a market niche, becoming a high-margin, value-added brand. It will take, however,
years to establish this reputation.
We whine in these threads about months, or next year's Photokina. A corporation has an infinite life expectancy - to Hoya, a 5-year business plan is short.
Hoya will market a camera with a 24x36 sensor when the potential return on invested capital is better than continuing to do what they are doing - or better than anything else they could do with that capital - not before and not after.
Until we learn to understand the rules of capital we will never be happy with what we have. Until we learn to understand Japanese capital thinking in conservative companies (and Hoya, rated AA, is conservative) we will never be happy with what we have.
Unhappy people should do what makes them happy, particularly when so to do requires nothing more than product substitution.