Originally posted by Marc Sabatella True enough. And millions of them *did not buy* the K200D, apparently deciding the weather sealing was not worth the cost (in dollars or size / weight). So Pentax did the intelligent thing - removed a feature that was *not* selling them many camera at that price point, and replaced it features like LiveView, video that are pretty much must-haves in this market. Would it *also* make sense to have to have a larger / heavier / more expensive weather sealed camera between the K-x and the K-7? Sure, if they have enough resources to maintain three product lines (while continuing work on the 645 product, developing new lenses, and perhaps working on an FF project). I think Pentax has a better idea of what kind of resources they have available than you do.
You just made my point.
The competition did EXACTLY the same as Pentax, except the apart about REMOVING features. Line-by-line, model-by-model, they upgrade the price point.
Pentax looks cheap to legacy buyers and upgraders (it takes almost no marketing to sell to a current brand owner; that's a sunk marketing cost) by removing features that were there at that price point a year ago. Dumb. And the previewers all immediately noticed it, with Pentax marketing itself somewhat confused (old story there; if you don't get it right with Amazon, you have a marketing problem). Cheap is leaving the lens hood off the kit lens (and bizarre is having 3 different versions of the "kit" lens at the same time). Quit calling it "entry level". To sell, it needs to be the camera current Pentax owners move to without losing features or breaking the bank. The other brands all do. No agonizing compromises for them; mostly smooth transitions for the same relative cash outlay a year or two down the road. The money is not on the new buyer; it's the return buyer with an itch for another lens or two plus some accessories. Feet wet, they move merchandise. Subaru once calculated that a second time Outback buyer spent $7,000 more on upgrades to their new model than they did the first one.
I think Pentax has reinvented its model line so many times it has no better clue than most of the people here. They did well on the K-7 and its value, but it has a very high price point for the vast majority of consumers (and many prosumers), especially in a severe recession. Looks like the engineers flipped a coin to see which model got which sensor!
No other manufacturer has such a large feature/price gap between models. This is a very big problem in most industries. It always creates market share and marketing problems. It loses customers at the top of the consumer bell curve. APS-C is a 3 model market, plus a single FF if the numbers add up.
What does the Pentax brand stand for? Excellent, affordable glass? Largely gone (SDM, anyone? Seen the price of Nikon's new 30mm?). Rugged, durable, WR bodies? Not below $1k (well, soon). Pretty colours? Apparently that's the future.