Has digital camera development hit the wall?

Gerd, at the risk of slipping further and further "off topic"

I think I am a lateral thinker, I put it down in some way to playing chess when i was young.  After a while a chessboard in action becomes a "pattern" of good and bad positions and no longer a series of possible moves (at least for me), but I never became a really good player.

I admire those who can only concentrate on a single purpose and exclude all side issues.  A lateral thinker is beset with all those "what if" situatations that are consequent on the first major decision.  I often have to deal with all the minor surrounding events before I can completely focus on the major issue in hand. Programming is another case of this issue, you have to consider the linked consequences of changing that bit of code lest it create a huge "bug" somewhere else.

Both thought processes have their place.  The direct thinker gets things done but can screw up because associated side issues are overlooked.  The lateral thinker can seem indecisive and slow but the thoroughness usually means no stuff ups and everything gets done.  Hardly the one to be leading the charge ....

So do we have a case of lateral thinking from Ricoh?  More direct thinking would be to keep making product to satisfy market demand even though it is increasingly less competitive in a hardening market.  Just make middle of the road stuff in relatively small quantitiies for a market that is becoming increasingly dependent of cheap and everywhere branding?  Or do they go off and have a good look at what they are doing and make a long term plan to be a smaller company selling select state of the art product at a small premium price structure?

Frankly I have no idea what is going on back at Ricoh HQ, nor do I need to do, but this forum might be the longest death-bed soliloquy ever for all we know.

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Tom Caldwell