Originally posted by mecrox So the answer is more porridge? I don't see why a mirrorless line would have to have anything to do with Pentax. It could be done as a Ricoh line, developed by a Ricoh team, and it could even use an existing mount (M43, e.g.) rather than start over with a brand-new one. I guess the idea would be to provide their Smart Vision operation with two main income streams rather than one. The hassle at the mo is that their main income stream, the DSLRs, are declining year on year. It's not either/or with Ricoh/Pentax or DSLR/DSLM. Anyway we'll see. It's quite hard to think Theta is all they've ever had in mind on the Ricoh side, though it could be so.
I think my point is not that they shouldn't do mirrorless, but that any of their cameras, SLR or otherwise, would get better with more investment. It is a bit amazing that they have turned out cameras as good as the K-1 with as little effort as they seem to be to devoting to their camera business.
As for the Ricoh team versus the Pentax team, you seem to know more than I do, but my guess is that while they are different brands, the development is managed in sync with Pentax activities. It isn't as though they have completely separate division in separate locations. The Theta is probably separate, but it probably has little to do with the activities of ILCs.