Ralf wrote:
> To face the digital cameras becomming the most important camera
> market in 2001, Minolta relocates their development and production
> facilities. In future, digital camera development will be the
> only work done in Japan. To have enough capacities there, major SLR
> activities will be concentrated in Malaysia. Malaysia in contrast
> will give the compact camera activities to Schanghai in China.
> Shanghai will cover the worldwide compact camera segment including
> development in future.
Hmm.. There were recent rumors from Japan that Minolta might sell off their whole
camera division.
Anyway, this may also imply that the SLR division will be tuned down and maybe with
some emphasis on cheap entry level stuff. As read this, it might mean that Minolta
will tone down slr development and concentrate on digital development; maybe something
along the lines of Olympus?
Anyway, Minolta didn't make money some years ago and I doubt that their SLR line do
now. For Pentax, the MZ-series is now pure profit. R&D is long payed off. So the
situation might be somewhat different.
>
> I think this is rather typical for the market going on now. 35mm
> compacts are under enormous price pressure with minimal margins. They
> can only be made at low cost places anymore. Japan in contrast is a
> very expensive place for camera activities meanwhile, only products
> with very large margins can be done there, and you can earn a lot of
> money with digital cameras at the moment, due to the current high
> price levels. SLRs are somewhere inbetween, but they are already at
> the state of yesterdays compact cameras.
>
> If Pentax produces the MZ-S in Japan, they will be pretty brave...
I don't think so (regarding the MZ-S Japan production). In fact, I believe cameras
like the MZ-S is exactly among those that can survive in this scenario. The 35mm slr
market will obviously shrink but products that can survive this is obviously
enthusiast or niche cameras whose whole existence isn't fundamentally about price. I
believe that the MZ-S (and Limited lenses) are perfectly understandable in this
context. Entry level slr's production in low cost countries is nothing new; Pentax
have been doing that for years.
Pål
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