And they are just achingly slow. The E-1 would have been a killer
camera if it had come out within 6 months of its announcement.
Obviously from the high quality of the body it was designed to steal
a lot of sales from the Nikon D1x and Canon EOS 1D. Then, their
anticipated high price and claims of compactness would have made
sense. Instead when it finally reached the stores, the market and
their customers had moved on. To sell any of them they have had to
make multiple cuts to the price. I think the E-1 must be pretty much
profit free at this point.
Their response was to spend way too much time bringing out an
affordable camera that now competes with the E-1 for sales and then
to spend time and resources to restyle that one to make it look less
like a point and shoot. All the while, the E-1, a killer camera for
2001 and which should have been updated immediately, just hangs out
there reminding everyone that Olympus is a struggling company that
may not make it. The alliance with Panasonic and the announcement
that they are going to reduce emphasis on the digital P&S which they
sort of understand to concentrate on the more profitable DSLR
segment, which they seem confused about, is not auspicious. Panasonic
may be able to do quick development, but it will be a Panasonic no
matter what the nameplate says.
The idea of a competitive 12-15MP 4/3 sensor in a new E-1 just seems
impossible at this point because of the noise problems. Olympus may
just give up that segment of the market entirely.
Shortly after I bought my OM4T I noticed something was wrong with the
Olympus approach. Nothing new was ever coming from Olympus. No
Olympus reviews in Popular Photography. Meanwhile the other players
realized that they had to bring out new product, new model numbers
for review even if the changes were minor. They understood that
reviews drove the market and Olympus did not. And much as I loved my
OM4T, it could have been improved.
Winsor
Long Beach, California, USA
On Nov 12, 2005, at 11:08 PM, Stephen Scharf wrote:
> Because the bottom line is that despite
> how innovative something is, products must still meet the needs of
> customers at some level. Despite lots of reviews, complaints,
> customer input about the fact their cameras have poor noise and AF
> performance, and no IS, Oly continues to put out products that do not
> address the major concerns of their customers.
>
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