Originally posted by Indecent Exposure Pentax "always" pulls the sheets off and "innovates"
Always? That seems a bit of exaggeration. While Pentax has often been a quirky company with more ideas than they know what to do with, they've struggled to come out with any innovations that would allow for significant gains in market share.
Originally posted by jsherman999 You have to look for reasons why we arrived at this market share disparity, because it's obviously not about product quality.
It's about prestige: Nikon and Canon enjoy the prestige of being the brands most professionals use. Photo enthusiasts tend to want to use the camera systems used by professionals. It is assumed that if you want to get the same results as professionals, you have to use the same equipment that professionals use. It is also assumed that professionals use cameras and lenses from the best brands. If most professionals are using Nikon or Canon, that's because Nikon and Canon are the "gold standard." While that may be true of some of the high end cameras and accessories, it's not necessarily true of the glass or of the mid-range and low-end stuff.
Pentax, to the extent that it is known or considered at all, is often remembered for the K1000, widely regarded, in its time, as the best "learner" camera. But in the SLR camera business, that's not what you want to be known for. It has caused Pentax to be stereotyped as "value" brand, as Sigma and Tamron are often regarded in the lens market. Value brands, it is assumed, make inferior products. These assumptions are difficult to challenge, because most people are not in a position to know any better, or to even care whether they know better. How many Nikon or Canon users, whether professionals or mere hobbyists, know anything about any of the products (particularly the lenses) Pentax has released in the last thirty years?
It is not enough for Pentax to create products which are more compelling than the Nikon or Canon alternatives, but they also have to find a way to get the message out, so that people know that these compelling products exist.