Unfortunately I believe that the E1 will appeal to a *TINY* fraction of
them. The vast majority of the boom - year SLR sales are now languishing in
attics, sheds or being junked. The better ones are being traded on Beay,
but to a diminishing audience of collectors.
The volume future is in compacts and bridges, and the pricing structures are
being set to reflect this. The "el - cheapo" SLRs will die out, since they
rely on sales of extra lenses for profitability, leaving the pro core and
some "advanced" amateurs, most of whom have a sizeable investment in one
system or another.
As you rightly pointed out in an earlier mail, Olympus have the vast
majority of lens needs covered in the original launch. The total
profitability of each system sale is looking a bit thin, frankly, and
factoring ever more ambitious super zooms into the equation can only make it
worse.
So to make a profit in this future market, they have to make each component
profitable in its own right, and look to shift volume into new areas. The E1
body needs to attract new people and be profitable, which means treating all
legacy systems equally and offering some benefits to all groups, rather than
being a sop to OM users, who are, lets face it, one of the least receptive
groups, foreswearing AF and multi - pattern matrix metering, not to mention
new - camera - purchasing, as we do.
If Oly were specifically interested in us as digital targets, they would
have produced a digital back for OM, and sold it at an astronomic price in
small quantities, exactly as L*IC* are going to do. This would have given
them a very low - investment route to our market.
That they have not done so is evidence that they are going for the market as
a whole, and an OM - only adaptor range holds a very dubious place in this
strategy. That an adaptor exists is evidence that they haven't made up their
minds on this, however.
But don't forget that this is the view of the consumer side. By touting the
system as an industry standard, Oly have to persuade other MANUFACTURERS to
adopt it. Launching the adaptor we crave on its own would simply reinforce
the proprietary message.
In summary, an OM adaptor provides an easy body sale (but no lenses !) to a
small group of people with sufficiently valuable Zuiko collections to be
worth factoring in to the equation, while (at worst) alienating, or (at
best) not helping with the target group of people with investments in other,
more up - to - date systems. It does nothing for relations with other
manufacturers
Julian
----- Original Message -----
From: "bdcolen" <bdcolen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2003 6:45 PM
Subject: Re: [OM] New E-1
> Actually, it's not dependent upon getting adaptors from other brands;
> that is an incredibly tough sell as those using "other brands" - i.e.
> Nikon and Canon - are already invested in lenses and bodies, and would
> need markedly superior results from the E-1, results so much better as
> to make a switch unavoidable.
>
> What you're overlooking is the fact that there are 10s of millions of
> people out there who have not yet made the jump to digital - people
> using all sorts of equipment; and the E-1 will undoubtedly appeal to
> many of them.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Julian Davies
> Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2003 7:03 PM
> To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [OM] New E-1
>
>
> I believe that the major problem Olympus are having with the adaptor is
> their positioning of the new mount as an industry standard. Releasing an
> OM adaptor will reinforce a proprietary message which is already out
> there. To do this properly, they would need to adapt multiple fittings
> to the 4/3, but of course they don't have the licenses. Or do they,
> bearing in mind the old PEN F adaptors....? Remember that the goal is to
> get enough N*k*n and C*n*n switchers to make other manufacturers come
> into line, rather than to foster interest in the OM community. After
> all, if every active OM user went and bought an E1 and an adaptor, the
> system would be a commercial failure. It is utterly dependent on getting
> people across from other brands. It's a reasonable bet that they a
> trying to get Tamron to build an AD2 mount and also to get Tamron and
> Sigma to build AF lenses in the 4/3 mount. Once you can mount something
> other than Oly lenses on it, the way will be a bit clearer for them to
> release the OM adaptor.
>
> Julian
>
>
>
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