10-02-2006, 04:17 AM
[quote Don Kiyoti]I think the comparison of Pentax and Apple market shares is fairly valid, as long as you're not talking about iPods! Pentax does not need to sell as many cameras as Canon or Nikon in order to succeed.
Pentax marketing is much more visible now than it was a year or so ago. I forget which city it is, but in one with light rail in the U.S. Pentax has bought advertising on trains, the kind where the entire train becomes a rolling ad, for example. This is for the K100D, which is selling well based on my unscientific poll of each camera store I go into. E.g. "sold three yesterday..." ect. The marketing director for Pentax USA is a regular visitor to the dpreview.com Pentax forum, and it's very clear that he pays close attention to what the forum folks are saying. A lot of that is reflected in the K10D.
It's worth noting that 11 of the 20 top cameras in the dpreview "click meter" are not DSLRs. The Canon G7 for example is #2 so it has been getting a lot of hits but has also been taking a beating in the forums due to poor image quality and lack of RAW. So a lot of clicks doesn't necessarily translate into popularity.
I bring up the click meter strictly as an indicator of interest. It does not correspond to sales but I believe it does indicate the buzz being created. Nikon and Canon recently cashed in on the buzz as they both announced and shipped 2 lesser featured cameras and had them in BM stores in 2 weeks.
Prime example of a camera that is good but not great riding the click wave and making a small dent was the Sony A100. I am not particularly impressed by it but it has some nice features. Sony has this in stores like Best Buy, Compusa etc. and vaulted that camera to a spike in initial sales before word of mouth reviews came in. I am going to be surprised to see the K10D in as many places. Now you will probably say that serious photographers will seek out other avenues for this camera. What is at stake is the impulse/in store credit/wowed in store user that can make Pentax some money. This is the kind of person that doesn't search the net and do research. They will use a BB credit card etc. and they will buy what they see. They may not make great photographers but a sale is a sale. Of course this will not be the bulk of sales but it helps. Sales of pricier cameras to people who just want a jam packed camera but will never utilize it all is a big money maker for Canon and Nikon and should not be ignored. We will have to see how this goes for Pentax. This K10D is a gem but they should have made it 2 years ago with a 6mp chip before Sony became a major DSLR player. The Pentax has what the Olympus line didn't, an extensive line of lenses and accessories. They sat on basically the same model revamped for 3 years. This is their chance to not blow it like Minolta and sustain sales for the long term. I'd like to see them succeed, they will help bring prices down but they really need to turn it up.
Pentax marketing is much more visible now than it was a year or so ago. I forget which city it is, but in one with light rail in the U.S. Pentax has bought advertising on trains, the kind where the entire train becomes a rolling ad, for example. This is for the K100D, which is selling well based on my unscientific poll of each camera store I go into. E.g. "sold three yesterday..." ect. The marketing director for Pentax USA is a regular visitor to the dpreview.com Pentax forum, and it's very clear that he pays close attention to what the forum folks are saying. A lot of that is reflected in the K10D.
It's worth noting that 11 of the 20 top cameras in the dpreview "click meter" are not DSLRs. The Canon G7 for example is #2 so it has been getting a lot of hits but has also been taking a beating in the forums due to poor image quality and lack of RAW. So a lot of clicks doesn't necessarily translate into popularity.
I bring up the click meter strictly as an indicator of interest. It does not correspond to sales but I believe it does indicate the buzz being created. Nikon and Canon recently cashed in on the buzz as they both announced and shipped 2 lesser featured cameras and had them in BM stores in 2 weeks.
Prime example of a camera that is good but not great riding the click wave and making a small dent was the Sony A100. I am not particularly impressed by it but it has some nice features. Sony has this in stores like Best Buy, Compusa etc. and vaulted that camera to a spike in initial sales before word of mouth reviews came in. I am going to be surprised to see the K10D in as many places. Now you will probably say that serious photographers will seek out other avenues for this camera. What is at stake is the impulse/in store credit/wowed in store user that can make Pentax some money. This is the kind of person that doesn't search the net and do research. They will use a BB credit card etc. and they will buy what they see. They may not make great photographers but a sale is a sale. Of course this will not be the bulk of sales but it helps. Sales of pricier cameras to people who just want a jam packed camera but will never utilize it all is a big money maker for Canon and Nikon and should not be ignored. We will have to see how this goes for Pentax. This K10D is a gem but they should have made it 2 years ago with a 6mp chip before Sony became a major DSLR player. The Pentax has what the Olympus line didn't, an extensive line of lenses and accessories. They sat on basically the same model revamped for 3 years. This is their chance to not blow it like Minolta and sustain sales for the long term. I'd like to see them succeed, they will help bring prices down but they really need to turn it up.