Winsor Crosby wrote:
>
> >>First time I have heard that you increase demand by raising prices.
> >
> >
> >Obviously, they're *not* trying to increase demand. Olympus makes sound
> >profits in many areas, but at best they're losing money hand over fist on
> >Olympus OM cameras, lenses, etc. The decision is to try and minimize
> >losses while staying in a niche, *not* to "increase demand." Certainly,
> >this oughta do it, but it gives us unique insight into the minds of
> >corporate planners at Oly: they will NEVER try to make the Olympus OM line
> >"mainstream" in the way the Canon, Nikon or Pentax series are. To do that
> >requires different strategies for price, production and marketing. It
> >looks like they're betting the farm on their digital line-up.
> >
> >Might as well face facts, folks: we like nice systems that are looking more
> >like Leicas (i.e., highly collectible, but you wouldn't want to actually
> >*use* it because it might get broken) than anything else.
> >
> >Garth Wood
> >
> Well, trying to understand this...
> Why are they losing money, "hand over fist". It does not appear to me that
> there is that much difference in the manufacturing and materials between
> Oly and the other stuff. It may be economies of scale. You can achieve some
> economies of scale by contracting out most of your manufacturing, which I
> understand is what Olympus does for its lenses and probably did for the
> OM3T. If you make the same camera and lenses for 10 or 15 years, that
> achieves some economy of scale. If you want economies of scale, then it
> seems to me you also need to increase demand. The logical extreme of the
> subject strategy is to take this originally middle priced camera, assemble
> a 100 a year by hand and sell it for $10,000. That makes the old Leica
> strategy of buying $250 Minoltas, changing the meter, lens mount and the
> name plate so that they can be sold as $2000+ Leicaflexes seem rational.
>
> I am not sure what the "niche" is. Is it small, old-fashioned,
> nice-handling manual focus cameras for people who learned the craft part of
> photography before auto everything? Nikon's FM2 is a nice camera in that
> category and it sells at B&H for $380 to $520 depending on whether it has a
> US warranty or not. There is also a pretty good collection of new lenses to
> choose from, not to mention the vast selection of used lenses.
>
> Or is Olympus trying to move up into Contax/Leica territory without coming
> out with a new model? That is difficult because reputation and magazine
> reviews sell cameras, especially good ones. Magazines don't review old
> cameras and lenses, generally. People buy Contax and Leica because they
> come out with new models, get reviewed, and the reviews say essentially,
> "Gee, this is expensive, but you cannot get better." Actually you can get a
> Contax RS, 167MT or ST cheaper than an OM3T.
>
> It is a real puzzle, unless Olympus just looks at the OM system like a
> status enhancer like GM does the Corvette. Loses money, but sells the other
> cars. But if that is true you would think that they would do more to put it
> in the public's face with advertising, seeing more people like us with OMs
> and bulging camera bags, and more efforts to get pro's to use it in a
> highly visible manner.
>
> If the intent is to eventually let the OM die, I don't know of many
> products that become "orphaned" that acquire much collectible value.
> Current perceived value of new high tech merchandise is what pulls the
> value of collectibility, whether it is Porsche, Ferrari, Leica, or Rollei.
> A "point and shoot/digital only" Olympus Corporation is not going to make
> its old semi-professional gear valuable any more than Kodak, Omega, Agfa,
> or Konica has.
>
> So use and enjoy your Oly stuff. Get any accessories you want now while
> they are still "cheap".
>
> Winsor Crosby
> Long Beach, California
> mailto:wincros@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
> "Any sufficiently advanced techology is indistinguishable from magic."
> -Arthur C. Clarke
>
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Excuse me if someone has already ased this question but, what will this price
increase
do to the market for the OM2000? It was my impression that this unit and the
new zooms
were introduced to help Olympus break into the low priced, entry level market.
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