On 8/24/06 9:13 AM, "Pål Jensen", <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Interestuing to see how Sony will fare in the future. My understanding is > that the Sony brand is quite strong in Japan and in the US. However, in the > rest of the world Sony is just another anonymous consumer electronics > manufacturer, most known for entry products like the walkman, with no more > brand status (if any) than Panasonic, Samsung, Sanyo or anyone else. So I > can't see they will sell much on the brand name alone. They have a far > weaker brand recognition than Nikon and Canon and even Pentax. I personally am very indifferent to Sony. The only Sony equipment I have is an ancient Trinitron TV purchased in 1980 and still working in the basement, although the colour is shifting. Actually, I do not know much about them except I believe their forte is really in the commercial broadcasting equipment and TV cameras etc. Having said that, Sony is indeed one of the top 5 recognized brands in the world. My point was that, when people, particularly the real entry market (like the first DSLR buyers), are in doubt, it is very conceivable that their final deciding factor might be the brand. Those people who are buying Alpha100 (particularly females. No sexist remark :-) probably do not know much about the difference between Canon/Nikon/Pentax or Oly etc, but they've grown up with Sony's consumer products. Once you passed that stage (into prosumers?), then all sorts of factors would be on the table and you do not go by the brand alone. Personally, I think Alpha 100 is ugly, straight copy of the former Minolta line and said to have a fairly poor performance in high ISO noise level. Whether Sony is really serious in this market should show in the future how good a product they might produce. But Sony is in somewhat of a turmoil now and I am not quite sure how serious they are in this market. It might be a quick money grab while they can. They may not even have expected to get into this market this way. K/M ended up forcing Sony's hand perhaps rather unexpectedly. There are enough "anti-Sony" people in Japan too. But they are a good company and their brand does give some confidence in some market. Cheers, Ken -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
