Originally posted by TaoMaas Pentax isn't conceding much of the North American market to Canikon, while they build up their base in the rest of the world.
I think that they lost almost all of their "market presence" in the US. I'm sure there are multiple reasons for that but most point at Hoya for really making US dealers mad. And when you are #3 (or 4 or 5) it is extremely hard to get back in. A camera dealer HAS to carry the top two brands, they have about 70% market share. After that you can pick any of the next two or three brands to stock depending on space, inventory dollars and whether you like the sales rep or not. Not carrying one of those is not going to really hurt you. Not having Canon or Nikon on the shelf will hurt you.
But we are starting to see many reports of Pentax returning to US dealers that have not stocked them in years. That is a significant turn around, that took time and effort. Ricoh sales reps have to walk into a store that may have an antagonistic attitude toward Pentax as a brand and convince that retailer to let them have shelf space, employee training time and inventory dollars. Why would any retailer do that when they can just sell Canikon and take no risk?
To set up a small Pentax display with two of each camera (just basic body only plus 2 different kits, no colors at all) and just one of each available lens (no FA's, no third party, no colors) it would take a minimum of $35,000 @ retail. Say $18 to 20k at cost if they get 45 - 50% margin which I doubt they do. And that is just DSLR, no Q, no x-5, no P&S, no mirrorless. So just as a mental exercise imagine walking into your local camera shop and ask the guy behind the counter for $20k and 3 or 4 running feet of shelf space. I'm confident you will not like the answer you get.
The amazing thing to me is that Ricoh has been able to do that. And I think they will continue to do so. And I think we will get more advertising but not yet. Marketing, market presence and production all have to be in lock step. If one gets ahead of the others bad things happen. It sounds as if the k-3 is moving very close to expectations with some shortages. What if Ricoh had spent $10 million on advertising in the US / Canada for the k-3 at Christmas? Would they have sold any more cameras? Possibly not if there are not enough to go around now. And not only would they be out $10 million they have would upset consumers with a negative impression of Pentax.