The sell-as-a-kit-only decision that Olympus made was likely one to provide
additional inventory pull-through, dealer ordering simplicity, and maximum
usage of scarce cameras, and an attempt at wooing first-time buyers. All
rational business decisions which won't please everyone.
If they had initially introduced both a body-only SKU and a kit SKU, then
dealers would need to make purchsing decisions on how to allocate their cash.
For the market that Olympus was initially targeting (first-time buyers), it
makes sens to maximize the number of kits, which provide lots of value. For
the second-body buyers, I think that Olympus figured: "We've got them anyway,
and they'll wait a couple of months to get the body."
It's a good possibility that the number of E-300 bodies has been limited due to
production QC and ramp-up. If I were them, and I was trying to dig into some
of the holiday D70 or D-Rebel sales, I'd introduce the body-plus-lens kit first
to maximize my number of cameras on the floor. N*kon did this with the D70 and
was very successful as they were ramping up Thai production.
For most of us that might want a second body or were buying the E-300 as an
entre to the 4/3 system (but didn't want the kit lens), we'll wait a couple of
months. If the decision was SO IMPORTANT that you couldn't wait for the body
only, I'd venture that this was only an excuse to buy something else and you
really didn't want the E-300 in the first place.
Skip
>> That's exactly my main gripe and the reason I've come to a resoundingly
>> conclusive tentative probably maybe "No" about buying one. If you replace
>> the cheapie lens with the better one, what the heck do you do with the
>> cheapie? Sell it for $5 on *Bay as a paperweight?
>>
>> Walt
>>
>> -------------- Original message ----------------------
>> From: "Jez Cunningham" <jez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> [snip]
>>>They would have liked to see the body available alone so that the
>>> more professional 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 could have been substituted for the
>>> 14-45mm
>>> f3.5-5.6 zoom.
>> [snip]
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