All this chat about profit ignores one thing. Items like the E-1 and
esp. the lenses have a very large fixed cost component. It's the
marginal profit on the last few sales that makes or breaks the overall
profit. Thus, bringing in the fringies could make the difference on the
margin. Yes, I have done financial analysis on and designed analytical
tools used for investments involving many many millions of dollars.
Does anybody here really believe that they will buy a digital body and
go on happly using their OM lenses in stop down metering mode for
everyday picture taking? I know I would buy at least a middle range zoom
right up front with the body, likely a dedicated flash and in the end,
probably several lenses. I'm not going to take casual pictures of
travel, family, friends, etc. with some kludgy exposure setup. Of course
I would use the specialty stuff like macro lenses on bellows, supertele,
etc. rather than buying new E or EOS system counterparts, at least at
first. I think that's where Oly is misunderstanding their market.
Getting bodies sold to OM, and perhaps other, MF lens users will end up
generating lens and other accessory sales." Ya gotta get 'em under the
tent", then you can sell them all sorts of stuff.
Moose
Julian Davies wrote:
.............
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.
.............
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,..............
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