The Answer is Simple, Sony cannot afford to be new

[james_frater]

I posted this in another thread but really I think is deserves it's

own thread for reading.

 

It is very common sense and Logical what Sony will do.

 

Sony makes a load of consumer digital camera's. The way of the

future is not only consumer digital camera's, but Consumer/Pro

digital SLR camera's.

 

What does Sony have now that they could compete with the big boys

who have had generations of market shares in SLR's.

 

Answer - Sony had nothing.....

 

Over a year ago now Sony joined up with Konica Minolta to jointly

share in creating the 7D, and then the 5D. To get some type of foot

in the door.

 

Same way Konica wanted to get a foot into the digital market, join

with Minolta who was already there.

 

Now Sony and Minolta are already in bed. KM is not rolling in money

at the moment and does not appear to think it will have the money to

keep going with their digital camera part of the biz.

 

SO.......... Sony now has not only cutting edge technology and

designs from KM, they also have a market of users and consumers who

use Konica Minolta gear, which now will be using Sony Gear.

 

Not only does Sony now pretty much both it's feet in the door, they

really did not have to create anything to get there. Konica Minolta

gave it to them.

 

All the dooms day people of Konica Minolta simply do not have really

any idea.

 

Why would Sony Accept the stuff from Konica Minolta, and then say

stuff it, we will go our own way. They would loose a huge share of

the market they want to own in KM users.

 

Sony cannot afford to create something totally new, they want the

Minolta user to stay, remain, and continue to buy stuff they know

and trust, they need the KM users.

 

Get it, do you actually get it. Sony wants to succeed, if they could

have risked developing their own unique brand they would have done

so. but in the end the market is already so tough in digital SLR's.

 

Taking the KM brand, improving to it, adding to it, will keep

current KM users buying things compatible with Sony's future SLR's,

will give them all the room they need.

 

People are sometimes so thick, they may know photography, but do

they know sales strategy.

 

Let me say again, Sony now has a product they did very little to

develope. The product will give them access to millions of KM users.

they cannot afford to go in a totally new direction. It simply would

not be worth it, they need the KM share of the market.

 

KM will live totally compatible through Sony. It is just pure,

logical, common sense smart biz.

 

Sony has stated it wants 25% of the digital SLR market by 2007. Gee

wiz, how will they do that losing KM users, and how will they do

that if they go a totally new way.

[ivan_dzo]

As a Minolta user, I don't see why this deserves its own thread at all! Speculation, pure and simple. When you have some facts, then let it have its own threat for reading.

[james_frater]

Really, it is not speculation, Sony media reps will openly tell people in my country of Australia much the same.

 

The announcements will come soon.

 

Give it a couple more months, you copy and come back to my post here, so I can say I told you so.

 

I am cool with that.

 

It is not a matter of 'what' you know, it is a matter of 'who' you know.

[clinton_abe]

"Over a year ago now Sony joined up with Konica Minolta to jointly share in creating the 7D, and then the 5D. To get some type of foot in the door."

 

Jimmy, This part of your message is wrong. Sony and KM are separate publicly owned companies. As such, they would not be working in secret, without having made some type of public announcement. Just as you think that "People are sometimes so thick, they may know photography, but do they know sales strategy", I wonder if you know how business operates? They are not 'private' companies, and must adhere to certain rules of public disclosure. This is particularly true of Sony, as it is publicly traded in the US market.

[chris_at_vividoptic.com]

"Sony and KM are separate publicly owned companies. As such, they would not be working in secret, without having made some type of public announcement"

 

Garbage! Companies sign supply/sales/quality/technical/etc. agreements without making a public annoucements! Its called "Business"!

[bill_thorlin]

The mix of factual errors, misrepresentation, misinterpretation and unfettered speculation is quite amazing.

[peter_goodman]

A point here in all of this debate:

 

Regardless of what business decision was made here, Sony is going to have to pony up to the Minolta format users. They will have to win the support of the KM users� period, with some kind of Pro/semipro format that allows consumers to continue to use the old Minolta products. If Sony switches the bodies over to a Sony Stick, there may be a huge loss of potential customers. Many pro photographers frankly hate the stick for a variety of reasons. Least of which is capacity that is only now being addressed.

 

The purpose of business in the first place is to MAKE MONEY. If there is no customer base, Poof! No money, no customer and your out of business.

 

Yes, many companies make decisions to do business together, but unless you�re a private company, the SEC, and the FEC have to sign off on the deal in the US. It�s called Anti Trust. Remember Rockefeller and Sinclair? That is where the public announcement is made. The catch is that you can list the deal in the Sat. Morning NYT, past the obituaries, in an ad that is half an inch high, .005� font, translated into Spanish, and written in Klingon.

 

If they decide to go their own way with a product that only incorporates a KM mount lens and nothing else then it will have to be something spectacular to capture that 25 percent market they are drooling over. It must appeal to the now orphaned KM owners, and has to be able to persuade Nikon, Cannon, Mamiya and even Blad owners to buy it. That�s a tall order, and cannot be achieved by simply coming out with yet another; yes I will say it again, James Bond cutesy crap.

 

The product architecture and frame my have already been made, but it has to appeal to the mass populace of Pro and Simi-Pro users in order to sell it. So what if Sony and KM were in bed. Ever heard of Ford and Firestone? Look what happened there.

How about General Motors and Fisher? Not too much in the way of surprises there.

 

Just remember, it all boils down to money. Who gets it, and how. If this turns out to be a money pit for Sony, the Minolta mount will go way of the Do-do. If it turns into a Cash Cow, the name Minolta will be a side note in the history of Sony�s products.

 

Only time will tell.

[bill_thorlin]

That about says it all.

[ivan_dzo]

As this is all speculation, here's mine. The only thing that Minolta had that Sony wanted was the in body anti-shake. If they were bothered about the user base of lenses, they wouldn't have dumped us with pure speculation for many months. People are leaving their Minolta system in droves. If it's such a well thought out business strategy but the magic Sony tooth fairy will deliver everything that KM users want for next Christmas, then they go about it in a funny way.

[dennis_fallon1]

> People are leaving their Minolta system in droves.

 

Huh ? Have you seen eBay ? Used listings on KEH ? B&H ? Adorama ?

 

People are desperate to get their hands on "better" lenses. A 70-210/4 sold on eBay for $400 and while that's the exception, they routinely go for $200 *since* the KM announcement.

 

You may have some anecdotal evidence that a few KM users here & there are switching, but if more are leaving than joining, where are the lenses ?

 

- Dennis

[james_frater]

The agreement between KM and Sony to jointly develope digital SLR (7D) was on the Konica Minolta website under press releases. This is way old news.

[oceanphysics]

<i>"Sony and KM are separate publicly owned companies. As such, they would not be working in secret, without having made some type of public announcement"</i>

<p>

Wow, that's hilarious.

[brandon_draper1]

Yes, where are all the lenses? If I wasn't in love with my Minolta's. I would be making serious money with my top shelf glass.

[clinton_abe]

Chris- You don't know you're talking about. It is one thing to sell KM sensors, but what Jimmy Smith is describing would require, under US SEC rules, some type of public disclosure. Rules in your country may differ and that is why I pointed out that Sony is publicly traded in the US. Why do you think companies always have a press announcement when they enter in such arrangements? The disclosure is required in the US to prevent insider trading.

 

Jimmy- the 'old news' was made after the the 7D came out, and the 5D was announced. However, you stated that Sony had jontly developed the 7D and 5D with KM. Again, you are wrong on this point. I do agree with parts of the rest of your post.

[drjedsmith]

I will have to add in mine as well: "Where's the glass?" I want it! :-) Seriously, any lenses that are on my wish list, ie. better than the ones I have traded up to already, are simply NOT for sale. Can't find them, period. There is the occasional bone on Ebay, but that gets snapped up by high bidders much out of my league.<BR>

It doesn't seem that people highly invested in Minolta AF systems are selling out any too quickly...because I'm not seeing the aftermath...yet.<BR><BR>

It'll all hold on like it is, until SONY produces that first camera. By the time it comes out, any Minolta user is going to be thirsty for that new wine (er...camera). And, like gluttons at an open bar, we will drink 'em down like no tomorow. Many Canon and Nikon users will have already upgraded this last business cycle, and the top guns of C&N are good enough to last a couple years now, even for the masses who have "camera envy".<BR>

So when SONY brings out that first DSLR, it's either going to make them #1 overall, or, if it doesn't perform, it will be such a drain on R&D money and have taken so long to get to the consumer that they may not ever recover the market share.<BR><BR>

That said, I for one, hope they DO NOT RUSH the first DSLR to market. It would behove them to get it perfect. And I mean perfect. If it has "banding issues" or symptoms like the D200, it will kill them before they're born into the market. It's got to be perfect the first day it hits the shelves, and if it is, SONY will be #1 in sales in 4-6 months after its release.<BR>

Just my thoughts,<BR>

Jed

[clinton_abe]

Jed- The two DSLRs that Sony will be releasing will probably be the two DLRs that KM had been planning to release. If you check some of the older posts (about 8 months ago) on this forum, you'll see that a poster saying that KM was going to release two DSLRs in the first part of this year. One was going to be a 'Pro' model. Then there was the post a few months ago, before KM's announcement that they were 'transfering' assets to Sony, when a Sony exec in Europe, said that Sony was going to come out with two DSLRs, one of which would be a 'Pro' model. So it looked like that prior to KM deciding to opt out of the camera business, they and Sony were going to share basic design, rather that each coming out with four separate designs. The Sonys would probably have been re-badged KM DSLRs. Also, there was info that some KM camera people would be working for Sony now that KM is out of the camera business. I expect that the first two Sony DSLRs will be more KM than Sony in its genes.

[._._z]

Agreed. It's pretty likely that Sony will come out with the planned 9D model that KM

was readying, or some Sonyfied version (Memory Stick Pro, anyone?). I would not be

sprprised to see 2-4 different bodies by Christmas, all including anti-shake,

including one that uses a variant of the chip Sony supplies to Nikon for its high-end

D2X.

 

Also, given Sony's relationship with Zeiss in developing digicam lenses, and the fact

that Zeiss currently offers no autofocus lenses for any 35mm systems, it would be

very interesting and welcome to see Zeiss jump aboard the Sony/KM mount.

[james_frater]

I do not see Sony keeping memory stick in digital SLR. No one really likes it. And for a pro camera you need the CF and Microdrive slot to really make it in the serious pro level. Simply holds more, performs better and much more cost effective for users.

 

If Sony wants to be taken seriously, then you got to be a serious player and get users on board willingly, not force them into new ways.

 

Maybe one reason Olympus is failing, their memory card is simply pathetic, you cannot start from behind, and non general memory cards is a poor way to go.

[clinton_abe]

Jimmy, I see the Sony DSLRs using Memory Stick and SD memory cards. The reasons are that Sony owns the Memory Stick format, and KM was a member of the SD group. If KM did not have to turn to Sony, you'd probably would see both CF and SD slots, but now with Sony taking over, the CF card will mostly be gone. Sony will have to come out with a Memory Stick that has more capacity to keep up with the capability of current SD and CF cards. And why would you want a Microdrive in your camera? Afterall, it does have moving parts and could be damaged by the shock occuring during a rugged photo shot like a football game. Have you ever seen a game where a player runs into a photographer on the side lines? The last thing you'd want to worry about is whether the microdrive is damaged. Canon uses CF and SD cards. The future is in flash memory not microdrives.

[james_frater]

It would be foolish for Sony to go memory stick, at the moment it is the most expensive type of media, a 8 gig memory stick would cost more than a pro digital camera and lenses. Or at least a second hand Rolls Royce :)

[bill_thorlin]

Sony have a reputation for doing things their own way and for forcing one part of their market to benefit other parts of their market ( an overall Sony view ) and not an uncommon business practice.

 

It may not happen overnight that they change things but it very well might in the future - again it is all speculation and time will tell.

[clinton_abe]

Jimmy- The cost of memeory cards have dropped, and will continue to drop in the future. And the good thing about digital is that you reuse the same memory card over and over. I'm more concerned with how I'm going to store all the gigabytes of photos I'll take, especially if I shoot in both raw and jpeg at the same time. I see where some computers now come with a terabyte, a thousand gigabytes, of memory.

[john_mcmillin]

Sony may not be as committed to the Memory Stick as you think. My Sony V3 accepts MS

or CF cards. The sticks are required to use the high-frame rate movie option, but that's

about the only limitation. Yes, Sony likes to push high-priced, incompatible accessories,

but they seem to bend when that strategy isn't working.

[peterblaise]

.

 

 

 

 

 

I can't believe I'm weighing in on this one, yet another S&M speculation (Sony & Minolta) ...

 

 

 

 

 

Konica and Minolta got together NOT for photography, but for business. They are both outsider companies (even in Japan) who had cooperated before on copier dust (ink) and rather than both going down in red ink, so to speak, they merged and got rid of duplications,

 

 

 

 

 

"Oh, now what to do with the photography stuff?" Konica Minolta said.

 

 

 

 

 

Konica, an older photo company than Kodak, just abandoned cameras and a few Konica digitals became Konica Minolta logo'd. Konica film cameras essentially died with the merger. This apparently was an informative decision to be repeated later when the Minolta photo business also never grew any more.

 

 

 

 

 

Otherwise, it was Minolta all the way down, camera wise. Konica film people were rumored to help make the 7D color choices, otherwise, that was a Minolta design. Did Sony help with the 7D and 5D? Sony designed the chip, of course, and Minolta apparently made the most of it.

 

Minolta is also rumored to have made the most of earlier Sony chips, even beating Sony's own RGTB red/green/turquoise/blue versions. Kudos to Minolta ... but not enough money?!? Sony was in awe, apparently.

 

 

 

 

 

The few enthusiasts within Minolta tried their hearts out, offering ROM updates for the DiMage 7/A-series when NO competitors did the same. My DiMage A now fires off a series of RAW shots like it was a film SLR - MUCH faster than original, all free, thanks to Minolta engineer ROM updates. You KNOW Minolta engineers used these cameras themselves, and when THEY wanted improvements, they shared them. Gotta LOVE 'EM, wherever they are now!

 

 

 

 

 

Minolta DSLRs in history? Minolta designed the RD-175 and 1995 (and also co-logo'd an Agfa version) and the RD-3000 in 2000, but never saw them as market leaders as Canon did with their digital cameras, so Minolta left the prices high and the sales meant nothing.

 

 

 

 

 

Minolta went on to develop the FILM Minolta 9 (one photo journalist called it the world's best camera of ANY type), and the most sophisticated Minolta, the Minolta 7 (many called it one of the 10 best cameras of all time). And the 5/4/3/70/60/50/40 series - endless cheapies, eh? All good, but ...

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Canon went digital AND made (Minolta) price beating film cameras, as did Nikon, so Minolta's 9 and 7 were almost always undercut at the dealer's counters by the Elan 7 or F/N-80. Minolta refused to enter such a loss-leader arena as DSLRs, waiting for Canon and Nikon to kill each other over what Minolta saw as essentially a no-money game. The result? Pentax and even Sigma released DSLRs first, along with Kodak (who has left) and Fuji (still there?). Both Sigma and Pentax PHOTO/CAMERA companies still exist, "Minolta" photo/camera does not. Ouch! Need we re-bury Minolta mis-management again and again and again?

 

 

 

 

 

Minolta designed a Foveon DSLR but Sony threatened to close it's chip delivery doors for the rest of the Minolta DiMage line, so Minolta caved and abandoned Foveon (dang!), and was by then a year late to market for it's troubles - a reason Sony may have scavenged on the dying Minolta (as, automotive wise, GM did, in their balking and waiting for Korean Daewoo to almost die before taking over on the cheap, now using Daewoo models re-logo'd for Suziki, Chevy, Pontiac and so on - a S&M Sony/Minolta paradigm?!?).

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps Sony and Minolta pitched in to help each other after the Foveon debacle without any official publicity, maybe as compensation - the Sony DSC-R1 has a Minolta DiMage Z handle (really - look at it - it's NOT like any other handle-to-body attachment BUT the DiMage Z!, and the round body is pure DiMage 5/7/A/Z - only the placement of the attachments and knobs are new to the R1), so who knows who had what in their R&D backrooms, Sony/Minolta wise? Was the Sony DSC-R1 really going to be the Konica Minolta DiMage A3? ;-) (Without AS Anti Shake?!?)

 

 

 

 

 

Minolta MAY have a secret desire to provide camera internals to other companies without the overhead of commercial marketing to the general public. Kodak, now #1 in the US could certainly keep a few factories busy! However, the rumor is that Minolta's Malaysia factories will be Sony all the way down from here on. Yet, there is a Sanyo pocket camera with a Konica Minolta internal folded zoom lens - the DiMage X-series reborn (WOTHOUT AS Anti Shake - dang!)?

 

 

 

 

 

For more, stay tuned - news trickles in every few days. Here's a bit:

 

 

Herb Keppler who edits Popular Photography & Imaging magazine, loves and uses Minolta, has the following to share:

 

 

====================================

 

 

 

 

 

<http://photoreporter.com/article.asp?issueID=54&num=2&vol=14&articleType=fc&articleID=525>

 

 

http :// photoreporter . com / article . asp?issueID=54&num=2&vol=14&articleType=fc&articleID=525

 

 

 

 

 

The Way It Is January 22, 2006

A Hint of Things To Come from Japan

Herbert Keppler

 

Although I�ve just completed my twenty-fifth trip to Japan since 1956, I�m not bragging about it. Many of you in the import and export areas of the photo industry probably have me beaten ten times over. Where I�ve got you licked, however, is in the variety of companies, executives, engineers and optical experts visited. I sometimes feel like a bee, cross-pollinating fields of photo equipment flowers, depositing a bit of useful (but not secret) information from one company to another.

 

 

 

 

 

In palmier days of our industry, it wasn�t unusual for me to travel from Hokkaido in the north to southern Kyushu in six weeks or so, visiting not only main offices but the manufacturing plants themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

No six-week trip for me last December just before the holiday rush. Seven days was more like it (and Japan is too Santa-mad to believe): one day for Popular Photography�s editor in chief and me to present Canon with its trophy for winning the best of the 2005 cameras tested with its Canon EOS 5D; three days to see as many companies as possible; plus two days� travel; and a Sunday.

 

 

 

 

 

Gleaned from Japan

 

 

While these were strictly meetings to gather information for Popular Photography & Imaging, Icouldn�t resist passing some of it along.

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently Canon�s full-frame EOS 5D at $3,300 caught competitors by surprise, and all will be tracking its sales but sticking to their own small sensors. Will the whole industry go full-frame DSLR in the far distant future? Possibly. Are medium-format 645 digital cameras really needed if full-frame 24x36mm sensor digitals are available? In any event, the Mamiya 645 II will be joined by the Pentax 645, probably at Photokina 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

I personally think Canon made an error in not building a flash unit into the 5D. Japanese pros still sneer at any SLR, film or digital, that has a built-in flash, despite a flash�s extreme usefulness for emergency fill-flash. But isn�t the 5D really the prosumer version of the full-frame $7,400 EOS 1-Ds Mark II? If so, shouldn�t it have had a flash built in?

 

 

 

 

 

Principal stumbling block for Canon�s competitors is still the high cost of obtaining a 24x36mm CMOS sensor. Canon makes its own, but few other DSLR companies do. They must �buy it out.� Fuji, who uses Nikon-mount lenses, is the most thoughtful concerning the possibility of a 24x36mm sensor DSLR. If Nikon doesn�t bring out a full-frame-sensor DSLR at a competitive price, it might just move Fuji to do so. Olympus, of course, has no thoughts about deserting the 4/3-sensor format, but it does have plans for at least one smaller bodied advanced camera as well as smaller and lighter lenses�two potential advantages the 4/3 system could allow and we were originally promised.

 

 

 

 

 

Independent lens makers who don�t have their own image stabilization systems are working feverishly on new, advanced systems. Sigma plans on increasing the number of their OS (optical stabilization) lenses, by Photokina time, but won�t have its new DSLR by then.

 

 

 

 

 

The Partner Effect

 

 

How much technical influence will Panasonic, Samsung and Sony exert on their respective partners, Olympus, Pentax and Konica Minolta? Possibly plenty, but not in the way you might expect. Think global distribution. Right now, increased DSLR sales of the three companies in the U.S., Europe and Japan are being stymied by the vast success of Canon and Nikon, who are said to have 90 percent of today�s DSLR sales in these areas. By using Panasonic, Samsung and Sony�s vast distribution systems in third world and developing countries, Canon�s competitors hope for large increases in DSLR sales.

 

 

 

 

 

For the near future, partners will share much the same camera models but often with some cosmetic modifications. DSLRs with camera-maker names will go primarily to specialty stores. Electronics makers� names will be seen in electronics and mass market stores.

 

 

 

 

 

Pentax�s immediate plans for Samsung and Pentax DSLRs call for cameras that are quite similar to those in the present *ist D line, but a more advanced DSLR around $2,000 is expected later.

 

 

 

 

 

Konica Minolta reports that Samsung [sic: he meant "Sony] technicians are already in discussions with them regarding a new DSLR for sale this summer or a bit later. What�s it gonna have? How much will be Sony, how much Konica Minolta? Come to the Sakai technical center in May and we might show you, we were told.

 

 

 

 

 

How would photo fans greet a small digital camera that could shoot pictures in any amount of light without flash, and, if you just had to have fill-in, an LED would probably do it. Could you imagine a digital camera with exposure latitude rivaling film? And what new, sensational type of imaging to come might be as exciting as digital imaging or maybe even more so? Sorry, I can�t spill all the beans at one sitting, but you�ll get your chance to read it all here, I promise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

================ and ... ==============

 

 

 

 

 

<http://photoreporter.com/article.asp?issueID=55&num=3&vol=14&articleType=fc&articleID=542>

 

 

http :// photoreporter . com / article.asp?issueID=55&num=3&vol=14&articleType=fc&articleID=542

 

 

The Way It Is: February 5, 2006

It Ain�t Necessarily So, Is It?

Herbert Keppler

 

What�s for sure is that Konica Minolta is getting out of the business of selling film and digital cameras, as well as minilabs, by March 31 of this year, and film and paper by March 31, 2007. Sony takes over customer service on all Konica Minolta film and digital cameras; Noritsu will handle minilabs (including updating?), and all Konica Minolta sales offices will withdraw from photo sales activities by September 30, 2007.

 

 

 

 

 

Most fascinating is the news that Konica Minolta will transfer a certain portion of its assets related to digital SLR cameras to Sony, whose spokesperson explained that Sony intends to enter the �fast-growing DSLR market� and will use the Maxxum-Dynax mount, autofocus, auto-exposure and mechanical electronics technologies indispensable for DSLR cameras.

 

 

 

 

 

Shake Up?

 

 

Notice anything important left out? Is DSLR anti-shake, a most brilliant and unique Konica Minolta development, included in the transfer or does that stay with Konica Minolta? �A certain portion� of KM�s DSLR assets being transferred doesn�t sound like a big piece of the whole pie, does it? Why is Konica Minolta holding back anything if it�s quitting everything DSLR anyway? Wouldn�t Sony be better off with all Konica Minolta DSLR assets, or is KM holding some assets back because they can get royalties from other camera makers for them?

 

 

 

 

 

While many of the stories in magazines and newspaper, and even the Sony spokesperson, have taken the obvious plunge and written that KM is ceasing camera production, Konica Minolta has said no such thing. �Withdrawing from the photo business� is how KM has carefully described it.

 

 

How can you remain in a business and not be in it? The same way Minolta has done it before. The very first compact Leica point and shoot was made by guess who? Before that there was the Leica CL rangefinder camera. And after that who was responsible for the major part of the Leica R3, R4 and R5 35mm SLRs?

 

 

 

 

 

Granted that KM is well out of the overproduced, underpriced, profitless-for-most-manufacturers compact digital camera field, but it still has a slice or maybe more of its DSLR assets. What is KM going to do with them?

 

 

 

 

 

Ins and Outs

 

 

There are Japanese camera manufacturers who never sell their cameras to camera stores. Sanyo now is probably the best known, having just completed a China factory for digital compact, major-brand-label cameras. (What�s surprising Sanyo right now, and it shouldn�t be, is how little business the factory has.)

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite invisible factory is Nittoh in Nagano province, a huge combine producing under subcontract some of the most famous camera maker lens brands. When I visited some years ago, Nittoh had just designed a neat little 35mm camera and was looking for a major label purchaser. A year or so later, Mamiya proudly showed me the camera with the Mamiya name.

 

 

I have good friends in the Paso Robles wine region of California. Alas, many of the small wineries wind up in bankruptcy, finding advertising, promotion, distribution and marketing intolerable burdens. Not my friends. They grow the grapes and sell them to the wineries. Money�s up front.

 

 

Could KM possibly think it might for now actually make DSLRs and then sell them to Sony, money up front, thereby starting April 1 with something like a nice black-ink photo balance sheet?

 

 

 

 

 

If you make a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door, but only if you advertise; however, there have been virtually no Maxxum ads for over a year. Maxxum needs far more megapixels, advanced CMOS sensors, tons of promotional and ad bucks, plus fuller world distributing muscle, all of which Sony has comparatively aplenty. The Maxxum line is like Orphan Annie and Sony is Daddy Warbucks. Konica Minolta�s photo business financial statement for 2005 was bathed in red ink, which it has been fairly consistently since KM�s loss years ago thanks to the Honeywell autofocus lawsuit and the later APS sales debacle.

 

 

 

 

 

At Konica Minolta�s Sakai tech center, near Osaka, KM and Sony engineers have been at work putting the finishing touches on the new DSLR that might have been available in both Konica and Sony dress this June or July but which will obviously now wear the Sony badge alone.

 

 

 

 

 

But how much under the badge will be Konica Minolta�s doing and how much will be Sony�s, in terms of manufacturing and financial responsibility? The production of the entire array of Maxxum lenses cannot overnight be shifted to Sony factories.

 

 

 

 

 

A parting of the Sony-KM ways in terms of camera manufacturing is probably inevitable for the future, but I�m not sure how many DSLR assets will remain in KM�s share of the pie and why. Meanwhile, will the Sony takeover give other red-ink camera companies with electronic partners some fresh financial ideas?

 

 

 

 

 

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Food for thought for the Mind of Minolta in all of us ...

 

 

 

 

 

Click!

 

 

 

 

 

Love and hugs,

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Blaise peterblaise@yahoo.com

 

 

Minolta Photographer

 

 

http://www.peterblaisephotography.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[clinton_abe]

Peter- I don't believe it...but you've actually posted a message that is readable. See what you can do if you just take your medication? I actually found parts of it very interesting, especially the part about the interest by Minolta in using the Forevon sensor, as this something I thought Mnolta should have done.

 

The one thing I noticed about your post is that the first part is not attributed to who wrote it. As it doesn't sound like your usual posts, I wonder who actually wrote it? The information in it is not something that you would have access to, so you must have gotten it from elsewhere.