Now *this* is what engaging the customer meaningfully is about

Sure we can be sure of that.

What we cannot be sure about is whether they *own* the assembly line. For a maker producing only occasional new product releases, with limited world wide distribution, it would probably make the most sense to outsource this activity. A guess, of course.

But this thread isn't about what Ricoh is or isn't doing. We have several thousand of those already.