Sadly, I agree. Oly's main weakness in my opinion has been their
ability to bring new product to market. It was true of the OMs and
why they faltered. It is why they brought a 5MP professional DSLR to
market 2 years too late and compelled them to drop their price to
compete against entry DSLRs with more resolution, drastically
destroying the profit margin they had planned for the E-1. The
increase in DSLR sales this year is predicted to be much smaller than
last and next year even less. Oly had a chance if they had brought a
competitive E-1 replacement and a finished lens line to market early
this year, but now I wonder about its future.
Is this the way free market capitalism works now? Fewer and fewer
choices? The last behemoth eating its last competitor and then
deciding that product is not profitable enough so nobody has a
camera? Seems like it used to work the other way round. What changed?
Winsor
Long Beach, California, USA
On Feb 26, 2006, at 6:50 PM, Garth Wood wrote:
> Well, I guess that's that.
>
> Posters at dpreview.com are reporting that the officials at the Oly
> booths at PMA 2006 have confirmed that there will be no new
> professional-level digital Oly body to replace the E-1 until at least
> 2007. Speculation is that Oly will be so far behind the pro curve at
> that point that there will be no new pro-level body from them *ever*
> -- instead, someone else (Panasonic? Leica?) will take up that
> mantle. Oly will concentrate on prosumer-at-best bodies for the
> foreseeable future, and leave the field to Canon and Nikon to slug it
> out. Seems strange, considering the quality of the pro lenses that
> Oly's put out so far, but perhaps they've been planning to make
> lenses which will ultimately go on someone else's pro-level bodies
> for awhile now.
>
> **HEAVY SIGH**
>
> Oh well. Guess I should go tire-kick that Canon 5D much more
> seriously...
>
>
> Garth
>
>
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