Does RX1 show that Sony doesn't listen to consumers?

And that's a good thing in this case.

The fun and frustration comes from the fact that it doesn't fit neatly into our internal categories of what a digital camera should be. We ground our expectations on what we know. We want the same things, only better: Brighter lenses, larger displays, longer battery life, faster AF, more FPS, hot shoes to stick familiar accessories on our camera. We want it yesterday and at half the price.

There's a tendency to seek feature parity with the "other guys" (Pan-Oly, Canikon) as though we're on a sports team. Everything "our guy" makes should be in response to the opposition. We ask for all the same lenses they have, except stabilized, lighter, and cheaper. We line up NEX against M43, DSLR against similar cameras at the FF and APS-C level from Canikon. Anything they bring out requires a response from Sony.

I wouldn't have designed the RX1 (or the RX100 for that matter). I wouldn't think it was possible to ask for such a thing, I haven't the imagination. No EVF, fixed lens, tiny body, AND FF? Smaller than my NEX7+24mm combo and probably better IQ? Inconceivable!

RX1 is close to the ideal camera for my needs. I don't care for OVF/EVF, it's got the perfect focal length for me, and it's small. I can't afford to buy one, but kudos to Sony dreaming it up and leading.

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"Customers can't anticipate what the technology can do. They won't ask for things that they think are impossible. But the technology may be ahead of them. If you happen to mention something, they'll say, ‘Of course, I'll take that. Do you mean I can have that, too?’ It sounds logical to ask customers what they want and then give it to them. But they rarely wind up getting what they really want that way.

-Steve Jobs"