I'll make a sad guess and say that Olympus will in the not too far
future no longer produce film SLR cameras. Olympus has no entry-level
SLR. Very few people will buy an over thousand dollar camera as their
first SLR when it lacks every convinence offered by cameras at less than
half its price. How many people do you know who have bought a new OM
model who didn't already have lenses from a previous camera? I know of
none.
Allan
On Monday, November 26, 2001, at 05:43 PM, GPaul64@xxxxxxx wrote:
Hi folks,
Thought you might be interested in the following press item I stumbled
across. Any thoughts/comments?
Best,
Greg L.
JAPAN'S OLYMPUS TO RESTRUCTURE ITS DIGITAL CAMERA BUSINESS
11/22/2001
Asia Pulse
(c) Copyright 2001 Asia Pulse PTE Ltd.
TOKYO, Nov 22 Asia Pulse - Olympus Optical Co. (TSE:7733) said
Wednesday it will restructure its loss-making digital camera business,
hoping to restore it to the point where it will break even on an
operating basis in fiscal 2002.
The company will begin producing digital cameras in China and reduce
the number of models it offers to 10 from the current 15 in order to
cut costs. It also aims to increase sales of lenses, printers and other
peripherals to 50 billion yen (US$406 million) in fiscal 2005 from the
current 15 billion yen.
It will confer with other companies on the idea of standardizing lenses
for digital cameras to make them interchangeable.
The company is also considering cooperating with Eastman Kodak Co. of
the U.S. in the area of Internet-based digital printing
Olympus's revenues from digital cameras are seen growing 23 per cent to
135 billion yen in the current fiscal year, but an operating loss of
11.2 billion yen is projected -- the firm's second consecutive
operating loss.
Olympus has an assembly subsidiary in Shenzhen, China that will begin
to produce 30,000 cameras a month next spring.
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