Rumours and speculation

I think Michael has fair comment that his initial feel-good thread was hijacked into something else so it is best that a new thread be started on rumours and speculations.

Rumours come in several consistencies and should always be labelled with their class, I think I try and label whatever I talk about and do not try and shift them higher up the ladder of credibility.  If I talk about them too much and thereby give speculation more credence than it should then I apologise to whomever I might give offence.

If I try and provide some reasoning then it is only sounding out probabilities supposing that there is some strength in what has been rumoured.

Ranking - approximate in descending order:

The best rumour is the announcement of a shipping date or product in hand

Official corporate announcement of a product to be made with anticipated availability date

Dummy products at trade shows

Words of senior officials at interview with reputable journalists on record

Insider corporate sponsored leaks (authorised or "unofficial")

Unauthorised leaks

Unguarded comments by those that might know "off the record"

Leaked industrial espionage

Retailer says "rep" said

Dredging the internet for clues (of any of the above)

Malicious leaks of half understood facts from unreliable sources

Gossip, well founded or otherwise

Pure made up speculation for devilment or otherwise

People are hungry for information and seize on any information from any source but it can hardly be bad if it is qualified unless it is pure fantasy or one of the last three on the list.

http://www.mirrorlessrumors.com/leica-m10-with-sony-bw-sensor-and-ricoh-collaboration/

This gets a bit closer but my mind still remembers some comment on Ricoh actually being said more clearly to be part-assembling for Leica at their plant in China.  I was not smoking something.

The record shows that Harold, GXRUser and AndrewTree were also involved at an earlier time in a discussion.  The reality is that the rumour was more than likely not correct.

Further research shows a report about a 10-day strike by the 1,300 employees at the Ricoh Elmex factory at Shenzen in China about 25/10/10 (reported).  Amongst other causes for the dispute was some problem about the amalgamation with an even larger nearby Ricoh plant.

http://www.ricoh.com.cn/about/ricoh_china/course.html

• Local corporation Ricoh Hong Kong Ltd Ricoh (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. was established in Hong Kong in1978.
• Manufacturing company established in Shenzhen in1991,production copiers, laser printers, Ricoh (Shenzhen) Industrial Development Co., Ltd.
• Company was founded in Shanghai in1993,production fax (joint venture) Co., Ltd. Shanghai Ricoh Facsimile
• Management the photonics technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. established in1995. [Now known as reason of Optoelectronics Technology (China) Co., Ltd.
• With the successful merging of Gestetner1996China Co., Ltd., for Gestetner Office Equipment (China) Co., Limited / Gestetner Zhanjiang. Production, sales in one of the sole proprietorship
• Ricoh International (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. was established in1997in the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone. Imports since 2000, sales of digital copiers
• 1998Industrial Development (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., Ricoh copier manufacturers of all Japanese-owned, accumulated copier production first exceeded one million mark
• Established in2001, theTohoku Ricoh Printing Equipment Co., Ltd. (Fuzhou).
• The Ricoh Software Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., established in2002 and theShanghai Ricoh Facsimile fax Limited cumulative production exceeded the 1 million mark.
• Ricoh (China) Investment Co., Ltd. was established in Shanghai in2003to co-ordinate the management of the marketing work in mainland China. 
  Shanghai Ricoh Digital Equipment Co., Ltd. was established in Shanghai, the manufacture of Ricoh office equipment.
• Ricoh Software Research Center (Beijing) Co., Ltd. was established in Beijing in2004, the development of related software
• 2005 of theRicoh Elemex (Shenzhen) Technology Co., Ltd., established in Shenzhen production copiers optional.

Yes, Ricoh does have a plant in China, I think they can squeeze the production of a few cameras in there somewhere.

But Michael is quite right - copiers are the business, there is little interest in cameras.

Another report suggested (1/5/2011) with earthquakes and tsunamis that the projected annual profit might be reduced from US$860 million to US$774 million.  Cameras?  Petty cash.

--
Tom Caldwell